CELEX: 62010CN0036
Language: en
Date: 2010-01-22 00:00:00
Title: Case C-36/10: Action brought on 22 January 2010 — European Commission v Kingdom of Belgium

27.3.2010   
            
            
               EN
            
            
               Official Journal of the European Union
            
            
               C 80/17
            
         Action brought on 22 January 2010 — European Commission v Kingdom of Belgium
   (Case C-36/10)
   2010/C 80/32
   Language of the case: French
   
      Parties
   
   
      Applicant: European Commission (represented by: A. Sipos and J.-B. Laignelot, acting as Agents)
   
      Defendant: Kingdom of Belgium
   
      Form of order sought
   
   
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               Declare that, by failing to adopt all the measures to correctly transpose the second subparagraph of Article 12(1) of Council Directive 96/82/EC of 9 December 1996 on the control of major-accident hazards involving dangerous substances (1), as amended by Directive 2003/105/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 December 2003 (2), the Kingdom of Belgium has failed to fulfil its obligations under that directive;
            
         
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               order Kingdom of Belgium to pay the costs.
            
         
      Pleas in law and main arguments
   
   By its action, the European Commission claims that the defendant did not correctly implement the provisions of the second subparagraph of Article 12(1) of Directive 96/82/EC in the Région de Bruxelles-Capitale (Brussels-Capital Region). In order to prevent major accidents and to limit the consequences of such accidents, that provision creates the obligation that the Member States ensure that their land use takes account of the need, in the long term, to maintain appropriate distances between establishments covered by the directive and areas such as residential areas, buildings and areas of public use or leisure areas covered by Article 12 of that directive. However, it is apparent from an examination of the provisions implemented by the authorities of Brussels that those provisions concern only the procedures for granting planning permission or for division into plots, which inevitably takes place after the creation of a land-use policy. Thus, the regional measures are incomplete in so far as they do not cover the procedures for defining and implementing that policy.
   
      (1)  OJ 1997 L 10, p. 13.
   
      (2)  Directive 2003/105/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 December 2003 amending Council Directive 96/82/EC on the control of major-accident hazards involving dangerous substances (OJ 2003 L 345, p. 97).