CELEX: C1998/299/43
Language: en
Date: 1998-09-26 00:00:00
Title: Action brought on 5 August 1998 by the Commission of the European Communities against the Kingdom of Belgium (Case C-307/98)

C 299/28              EN                    Official Journal of the European Communities                                     26.9.98
Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, (2) Secretary                conforms to the limit values set in accordance with
of State for the Environment, ex parte: Monsante plc, and                  Article 3 of Council Directive 76/160/EEC of
I Pi Ci SpA, Intervener, on the following questions:                       8 December 1975 concerning the quality of bathing
                                                                           water (1) within 10 years following the notification of
1. Whenever a Member State authorises the placing on                      this Directive, the Kingdom of Belgium has failed to
     the market in its territory of a plant protection                     fulfil its obligations under Article 4 of Directive 76/
     product pursuant to Article 8(2) of Council Directive                 160/EEC and the third paragraph of Article 189 of the
     91/414/EEC of 15 July 1991 concerning the placing of                  EC Treaty, and
     plant protection products on the market (1), does
     Article 8(3) of that Directive apply so as to require the
                                                                       2. order the Kingdom of Belgium to pay the costs.
     Member State to evaluate the application for
     authorisation in accordance with the requirements laid
     down in Article 4(1)(b)(i) to (v) and (c) to (f)?'                Pleas in law and main arguments adduced in support:
2. If the answer to question 1 is in the affirmative, is the
     Member State under an obligation to apply the                     Under the third paragraph of Article 189 of the EC Treaty,
     requirements of Article 4(1)(b)(i) to (v) to such                 in conjunction with Article 4(1) of Directive 76/160/EEC,
     applications in the light of current scientific and              Belgium is required to make the quality of its bathing
     technical knowledge'?                                             waters conform to the limit values set in accordance with
                                                                       Article 3 of the Directive within 10 years, a period which
                                                                       expired on 11 December 1985.
3. If the answer to question 1 is in the affirmative, is the
     Member State also under an obligation to apply the
     requirements of Article 4(1)(c) to (f) to such                    In the Commission's view, the Walloon Region authorities
     applications in the light of current scientific and              were wrong to revise in 1996 the list of bathing areas and
     technical knowledge'?                                             withdraw some 30 bathing sites so that there appear to
                                                                       remain only 10 officially designated bathing areas. The
4. If the answers to questions 1, 2 and/or 3 are in the                grounds relied on in order to justify such revision are not
     affirmative is the Member State under an obligation to            sufficient in order to exclude the sites in question from the
     ensure that its national provisions concerning the data           bathing waters covered by the Directive. The Belgian
     to be provided (as referred to in Articles 8(3) and               authorities advertise no fewer than 16 of those sites in the
     13(6) of the Directive) permit an evaluation to be                1998 guide to camping sites as bathing areas available
     carried out in accordance with the criteria laid down             within a short distance from those camping sites.
     in Article 4(1)(b)(i) to (v) and (c) to (f) of the Directive
     in the light of current scientific and technical
     knowledge'?                                                       The measures adopted by Belgium in order to make the
                                                                       quality of the waters conform to the limit values set
(1) OJ L 230, 19.8.1991, p. 1.                                         pursuant to Article 4 of the Directive, in particular the
                                                                       programmes of investment in water purification both in
                                                                       Flanders and in the Walloon Region, are inadequate; the
                                                                       Belgian authorities mention the setting up of water
                                                                       treatment infrastructures in general without being specific
                                                                       about their impact on the improvement of bathing-water
                                                                       quality. So far as concerns Flanders, the water purification
Action brought on 5 August 1998 by the Commission of                   programme does not even cover all the bathing areas. As
the European Communities against the Kingdom of                        to the Walloon Region, the programmes contain no details
                             Belgium                                   as to the dates for the start and completion of the work
                        (Case C-307/98)                                on the infrastructures provided for or information on the
                                                                       exact location of those works.
                         (98/C 299/43)
An action against the Kingdom of Belgium was brought                   According to the report on the quality of bathing waters
before the Court of Justice of the European Communities                during the 1995 bathing season for the whole of Belgium
on 5 August 1998 by the Commission of the European                     (EUR 16755), the rate of conformity of freshwater bathing
Communities, represented by Francisco de Sousa Fialho,                 areas was 41,4 %. The report on the quality of bathing
of its Legal Service, and O. Couvert-CasteÂra, a national              waters during the 1996 bathing season for the whole of
civil servant on secondment to the Legal Service, acting as            Belgium (EUR 17629) indicates that, even if the 30 sites
Agents, with an address for service in Luxembourg at the               indicated by the Walloon Region are removed from the list
office of Carlos Gómez de la Cruz, of its Legal Service,               of Walloon sites taken into account for the purpose of
Wagner Centre, Kirchberg.                                              drawing up the annual reports on the implementation of
                                                                       the Directive, the level of conformity is only 85,5 %.
The applicant claims that the Court should:
                                                                       (1) OJ L 31, 5.2.1976, p. 1.
1. declare that, by failing to adopt the necessary
     measures to ensure that the quality of bathing water