Commission of the European Communities v French Republic.
Date: 1999-03-18
7 Whilst acknowledging the great biological importance of the Seine estuary, the French Government replied, on 18 November 1993, that it regarded the existing protection regime as being adequate to guarantee compliance with the commitment it had entered into, on creating the SPA, to preserve bird habitats.  It denied that the deposit of titanogypsum could constitute an infringement of the Wild Birds Directive, since it was located outside the SPA.
13 In this connection, it is sufficient to observe that, according to the settled case-law of the Court, a Member State may not plead provisions, practices or circumstances existing in its internal legal system in order to justify a failure to comply with the obligations and time-limits laid down in a directive (see, inter alia, Case C-259/94 Commission v Greece [1995] ECR I-1947, at paragraph 5 and Case C-214/96 Commission v Spain [1998] ECR I-7661, at paragraph 18).
14 Moreover, it is common ground that the Seine estuary is a particularly important ecosystem as a migration staging post, wintering area and breeding ground for a large number of the bird species referred to in Article 4(1) and (2) of the Wild Birds Directive.
15 It must therefore be held that France failed to classify, within the period laid down, a sufficiently large area of the Seine estuary as an SPA within the meaning of Article 4(1) and (2) of the Wild Birds Directive. Consequently, as regards this point, the Commission's application must be allowed.
The legal protection regime of the SPA created in 1990
16 The Commission maintains that France failed to establish for the Seine estuary a legal regime which would satisfactorily preserve the integrity of the SPA created in 1990.  More specifically, the protection regime which the Agreement provides for that SPA fails, in the Commission's submission, to meet the conservation requirements defined in Article 4(1) and (2) of the Wild Birds Directive. Moreover, no other measure designed to provide the SPA with an adequate legal protection regime has been adopted.
18 In this connection, it must be observed that it is settled case-law that the question whether a Member State has failed to fulfil its obligations must be determined by reference to the situation prevailing in that State at the end of the period laid down in the reasoned opinion (see, in particular, Case C-60/96 Commission v France [1997] ECR I-3827, at paragraph 15 and Case C-3/96 Commission v Netherlands [1998] ECR I-3031, at paragraph 36).
21 As regards the other measures which, according to the French Government, are intended to provide the SPA with an adequate protection regime, it must be borne in mind that, according to the case-law of the Court, Article 4(1) and (2) of the Wild Birds Directive requires the Member States to provide SPAs with a legal protection regime that is capable, in particular, of ensuring both the survival and reproduction of the bird species listed in Annex I to the directive and the breeding, moulting and wintering of migratory species not listed in Annex I which are, nevertheless, regular visitors (see, to this effect, Case C-355/90 Commission v Spain [1993] ECR I-4221, at paragraphs 28 to 32).
33 Lastly, the French Government states that significant measures have been adopted to avoid any deterioration of habitats or of species on the site.
38 As regards the alleged infringement of the first sentence of Article 4(4) of the original version of the Wild Birds Directive, it is clear from the case-law of the Court that Member States must comply with the obligations arising inter alia under that provision, even where the area in question has not been classified as an SPA, provided that it should have been so classified (see Commission v Spain, cited above, at paragraph 22).
39 It follows that any infringement of the first sentence of Article 4(4) of the Wild Birds Directive presupposes that the area in question is one of the most suitable territories in number and size for the conservation of protected species, within the meaning of the fourth subparagraph of Article 4(1).
40 It is settled case-law that, in proceedings under Article 169 of the Treaty for failure to fulfil an obligation, it is incumbent upon the Commission to prove the allegation that the obligation has not been fulfilled and to place before the Court the information necessary to enable it to determine whether the obligation has been fulfilled (see, inter alia, Case 96/81 Commission v Netherlands [1982] ECR 1791, at paragraph 6 and Case C-157/94 Commission v Netherlands [1997] ECR I-5699, at paragraph 59).
48 As to the alleged infringement of the second sentence of Article 4(4) of the Wild Birds Directive, it should be observed that the Commission has not shown that the French Republic did not endeavour to avoid pollution or deterioration of the habitat where the titanogypsum treatment plant was constructed.