CELEX: 62012CN0113
Language: en
Date: 2012-03-01 00:00:00
Title: Case C-113/12: Reference for a preliminary ruling from Supreme Court (Ireland) made on 1 March 2012 — Donal Brady v Environmental Protection Agency

26.5.2012   
            
            
               EN
            
            
               Official Journal of the European Union
            
            
               C 151/18
            
         Reference for a preliminary ruling from Supreme Court (Ireland) made on 1 March 2012 — Donal Brady v Environmental Protection Agency
   (Case C-113/12)
   2012/C 151/31
   Language of the case: English
   
      Referring court
   
   Supreme Court, Ireland
   
      Parties to the main proceedings
   
   
      Applicant: Donal Brady
   
      Defendant: Environmental Protection Agency
   
      Questions referred
   
   In the absence of a definitive interpretation of the meaning of ‘waste’ for the purposes of Union law, is a Member State permitted by national law to impose upon a producer of pig slurry the obligation to establish that it is not waste, or is waste to be determined by reference to objective criteria of the type referred to in the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union:
   
               1.
            
            
               If waste is to be determined by reference to objective criteria of the type referred to in the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union, what level of certainty of re-use of pig slurry is required, which a licensee collects and stores or may store for upwards of 12 months, pending its transfer to users?
            
         
               2.
            
            
               If pig slurry is waste, or is determined to be waste in accordance with the application of the appropriate criteria, is it lawful for a Member State to impose upon its producer — who does not use it on his own lands, but disposes of it to third party landowners for use as fertilisers on those third parties’ lands — personal liability for compliance by those users with Union legislation concerning the control of waste and/or fertilisers, in order to ensure that the third parties’ use of that pig slurry by land spreading will not give rise to a risk of significant environmental pollution?
            
         
               3.
            
            
               Is the aforesaid pig slurry excluded from the scope of the definition of ‘waste’ by virtue of Article 2(1)(b)(iii) of Directive 75/442/EEC (1), as amended by Council Directive 91/156 (2), by reason of its being ‘already covered by other legislation’, and in particular by Council Directive 91/676/EEC (3), in circumstances where, at the time the licence was granted, Ireland had not transposed Council Directive 91/676/EEC, no other domestic legislation controlled the application of pig slurry to land as fertiliser, and Council Regulation (EC) No 1774/2002 (4) had not then been adopted?
            
         
      (1)  Council Directive 75/442/EEC of 15 July 1975 on waste
   OJ L 194, p. 39
   
      (2)  Council Directive 91/156/EEC of 18 March 1991 amending Directive 75/442/EEC on waste
   OJ L 78, p. 32
   
      (3)  Council Directive 91/676/EEC OF 12 December 1991 concerning the protection of waters against pollution caused by nitrates from agricultural sources
   OJ L 375, p. 1
   
      (4)  Regulation (EC) No 1774/2002 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 3 October 2002 laying down health rules concerning animal by-products not intended for human consumption
   OJ L 273, p. 1