Criminal proceedings against Giancarlo Fornasar, Andrea Strizzolo, Giancarlo Toso, Lucio Mucchino, Enzo Peressutti and Sante Chiarcosso.
Date: 2000-06-22
27 It must first of all be observed that it is settled case-law that it is solely for the national courts before which actions are brought, and which must bear the responsibility for the subsequent judicial decision, to determine in the light of the special features of each case both the need for a preliminary ruling in order to enable them to deliver judgment and the relevance of the questions which they submit to the Court. Dismissal of a request from a national court is possible only where it is clear that the interpretation of Community law or the consideration of the validity of a Community rule requested by that court has no bearing on the real situation or on the subject-matter of the case (see in particular Case C-67/91 Asociación Española de Banca Privada and Others [1992] ECR I-4785, paragraphs 25 and 26, and Joined Cases C-304/94, C-330/94, C-342/94 and C-224/95 Tombesi and Others [1997] ECR I-3561, paragraph 38).
31 However, in proceedings under Article 177 of the Treaty, which is based on a clear separation of functions between the national courts and the Court of Justice, any assessment of the facts in the case is a matter for the national court (see Case 36/79 Denkavit [1979] ECR 3439, paragraph 12, and Joined Cases C-175/98 and C-177/98 Lirussi and Bizzaro [1999] ECR I-6881, paragraph 37).
32 The Court therefore has no jurisdiction to give a ruling on the facts in the main proceedings or to apply the rules of Community law which it has interpreted to national measures or situations, since those questions are matters for the exclusive jurisdiction of the national court (Lirussi and Bizzaro, paragraph 38). The same is true of the classification in a specific case of particular substances with respect to the list of hazardous wastes laid down by Decision 94/904 pursuant to Article 1(4) of Directive 91/689.
41 It must be borne in mind that the obligation of a Member State to take all the measures necessary to achieve the result prescribed by a directive is a binding obligation imposed by the third paragraph of Article 189 of the EC Treaty (now the third paragraph of Article 249 EC) and by the directive itself (Case C-129/96 Inter-Environnement Wallonie [1997] ECR I-7411, paragraph 40).
42 That obligation to take all appropriate measures, whether general or particular, binds all the authorities of the Member States including, for matters within their jurisdiction, the courts (Case C-106/89 Marleasing [1990] ECR I-4135, paragraph 8, and Inter-Environnement Wallonie, paragraph 40).
44 To that end, Article 1(3) of Directive 91/689 refers to the definition of waste laid down in Directive 75/442, and Article 1(4) defines hazardous waste. Decision 94/904 supplements Directive 91/689 and the annex thereto also refers to the definition of waste in Article 1(a) of Directive 75/442.
46 In that connection, it must be observed that the Community rules do not seek to effect complete harmonisation in the area of the environment. Even though Article 130r of the Treaty refers to certain Community objectives to be attained, both Article 130t of the EC Treaty (now Article 176 EC) and Directive 91/689 allow the Member States to introduce more stringent protective measures. Under Article 130r of the Treaty, Community policy on the environment is to aim at a high level of protection, taking into account the diversity of situations in the various regions of the Community.
51 The reply to the second, third, fourth and fifth questions must therefore be that Directive 91/689 does not prevent the Member States, including, for matters within their jurisdiction, the courts, from classifying as hazardous waste other than that featuring on the list of hazardous waste laid down by Decision 94/904, and thus from adopting more stringent protective measures in order to prohibit the abandonment, dumping or uncontrolled disposal of such waste. If they do so, it is for the authorities of the Member State concerned which have competence under national law to notify the Commission of such cases in accordance with the second indent of Article 1(4) of Directive 91/689.
The first question