CELEX: C2005/296/30
Language: en
Date: 2005-11-26 00:00:00
Title: Case C-361/05: Action brought on  26 September 2005  by the Commission of the European Communities against the Kingdom of Spain

26.11.2005   
            
            
               EN
            
            
               Official Journal of the European Union
            
            
               C 296/16
            
         Action brought on 26 September 2005 by the Commission of the European Communities against the Kingdom of Spain
   (Case C-361/05)
   (2005/C 296/30)
   Language of the case: Spanish
   An action against the Kingdom of Spain was brought before the Court of Justice of the European Communities on 26 September 2005 by the Commission of the European Communities, represented by I. Martínez del Peral and M. Konstantinidis, acting as Agents, with an address for service in Luxembourg.
   The Commission claims that the Court should:
   
               1.
            
            
               declare that
               
                           —
                        
                        
                           by failing to fulfil its obligations under Articles 4, 9 and 13 of Council Directive 75/442/EEC (1), as amended by Council Directive 91/156/EEC (2), and Article 14 of Council Directive 99/31/EC (3), in that it has not taken the measures necessary to ensure that the landfill sites at Níjar and Hoyo de Miguel comply with the obligations arising from those directives;
                        
                     
                           —
                        
                        
                           by also failing to fulfil its obligations under Articles 4, 9 and 13 of Directive 75/442/EEC, as amended by Directive 91/156/EEC, and Article 14 of Directive 99/31/EC, in that it has not taken the measures necessary to ensure that the landfill site at Cueva del Mojón complies with the obligations arising from those directives, not having received from the Spanish authorities information which contradicts the compla int received in respect of the landfill site at Cueva del Mojón, situated in La Mojonera,
                        
                     the Kingdom of Spain has failed to fulfil its obligations under the provisions cited in the previous paragraph;
            
         
               2.
            
            
               order the Kingdom of Spain to pay the costs.
            
         Pleas in law and main arguments
   The persistence of the problem with those landfill sites has led to significant degradation of the environment over a prolonged period of time, and without any intervention by the competent authorities, in spite of requests by the Commission.
   The waste in the illegal landfill sites releases into the soil, air and water chemical substances which endanger human health, contaminates surface and ground waters and the atmosphere, as well as plants and animals. Moreover, the illegal incineration and the fires which ignite spontaneously because of the inflammable nature of the waste in the unsupervised landfill sites give rise to many fires with disastrous consequences for the environment.
   
      (1)  of 15 July 1975 on waste, OJ L 194 of 25.7.75, p. 39.
   
      (2)  of 18 March 1991OJ L 78 of 26.3.1991, p. 32.
   
      (3)  of 26 April 1999, on the landfill of waste, OJ l 182 of 16.7.1999, p. 1.