European Commission v Portuguese Republic.
Date: 2016-01-28
40


In order to meet the objective of protecting the environment from the adverse effects of waste water discharges, as specified in Article 1 of Directive 91/271, the obligation in Article 4 thereof — according to which discharges of urban waste waters must be subject to treatment satisfying the requirements of Annex I.B — is secured over time through the monitoring of discharges from treatment plants, as provided for in the first indent of Article 15(1) of the directive, which makes express reference to Annex I.D thereto. In that respect, it must be borne in mind that the object of the present case is not to find that the Portuguese Republic has failed to fulfil its obligations under Article 15 of Directive 91/271.
41


In support of that interpretation, it must be stated that Articles 3 and 4 of Directive 91/271 impose on Member States the same deadlines for, as regards Article 3, providing agglomerations with a collecting system for urban waste water and, as regards Article 4, subjecting that water to secondary treatment or equivalent before discharge. Were the Commission’s interpretation of Article 4 of Directive 91/271 to be accepted, the deadlines laid down in that article would have to be at one year’s distance from those indicated in Article 3 of the directive, that one-year gap allowing Member States to carry out the collection of samples, in accordance with Annex I.D to the directive. However, no period additional to that granted in Article 3 of Directive 91/271 is provided to Member States for the purpose of complying with the requirements of Article 4 of the directive.
42


Moreover, although Article 8 of Directive 91/271 allows the time limit granted for complying with the requirements of Article 4 of the directive to be extended, such an extension may be granted only on the basis of a special request and, in any event, Article 4 makes no mention of an obligation to take into account a minimum number of samples to be collected by the Member State concerned during that additional period.
47


In that regard, it must be recalled that although, in proceedings brought under Article 258 TFEU for failure to fulfil obligations, it is for the Commission to prove the allegation that an obligation has not been fulfilled, by placing before the Court all the information required to enable the Court to establish that the obligation has not been fulfilled, without the Commission being entitled to rely on any presumption, account should be taken of the fact that, where it is a question of checking that the national provisions intended to ensure effective implementation of a directive are applied correctly in practice, the Commission, which does not have investigative powers of its own in this area, is largely reliant on the information provided by complainants or by the Member State concerned (see, to that effect, judgment in Commission v Portugal, C‑526/09, EU:C:2010:734, paragraph 21 and the case-law cited).
48


It follows, inter alia, that, where the Commission has adduced sufficient evidence to establish that the national provisions transposing a directive are not applied correctly in practice in the territory of the defendant Member State, it is for the latter to challenge in substance and in detail the information produced and the inferences drawn (see, to that effect, judgment in Commission v Portugal, C‑526/09, EU:C:2010:734, paragraph 22 and the case-law cited).
49


It should also be noted that the question whether a Member State has failed to fulfil obligations must be determined by reference to the situation prevailing in the Member State at the end of the period laid down in the reasoned opinion and the Court cannot take account of any subsequent changes (see, inter alia, judgments in Commission v Greece, C‑440/06, EU:C:2007:642, paragraph 16, and Commission v Belgium, C‑395/13, EU:C:2014:2347, paragraph 39).