CELEX: C2004/179/09
Language: en
Date: 2004-07-10 00:00:00
Title: Case C-199/04: Action brought on 4 May 2004 by the Commission of the European Communities against the United Kingdom

10.7.2004   
            
            
               EN
            
            
               Official Journal of the European Union
            
            
               C 179/4
            
         Action brought on 4 May 2004 by the Commission of the European Communities against the United Kingdom
   (Case C-199/04)
   (2004/C 179/09)
   An action against the United Kingdom was brought before the Court of Justice of the European Communities on 4 May 2004 by the Commission of the European Communities, represented by Ms Claire-Françoise Durand and Ms Florence Simonetti, acting as agents, assisted by Miss Anneli Howard, Barrister, with an address for service in Luxembourg.
   The Applicant claims that the Court should declare that:
   
               1)
            
            
               the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland has failed to take all the measures necessary to ensure the complete and correct implementation of Articles 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8 and 9 of Council Directive 85/337/EEC of 27 June 1985 on the assessment of the effects of certain public and private projects on the environment (1) as amended by Council Directive 97/11/EC of 3 March 1997 (2).
            
         
               2)
            
            
               the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland are liable to pay the costs.
            
         Pleas in law and main arguments:
   It is not disputed that the UK has adopted the necessary legislation to implement Directive 85/337 as well as the amendments introduced by Directive 97/11. This application concerns the manner in which the UK authorities have interpreted and applied the relevant provisions which, the Commission asserts, fails to ensure the correct and complete implementation into national law of the Directive, both in its unamended and amended form.
   In this application the Commission puts forward two main heads of infringement, namely:
   
               a)
            
            
               that the use by the UK authorities of the domestic ‘material change of use’ test in relation to the approval of the planning application, coupled with the narrow interpretation of ‘project’, operates to exclude certain projects and modifications of existing projects from the legitimate scope of the Directive with the result that the Environmental Impact |Assessment procedures are not applied to such projects; and
            
         
               b)
            
            
               that the UK government has failed to integrate its planning and pollution controls adequately so as to ensure compliance with all of the obligations in Article 3 and 8 of the Directive.
            
         
      (1)  OJ L 175, 5.7.1985, p. 40.
   
      (2)  OJ L 73, 14.3.1997, p. 5.