Commission of the European Communities v Kingdom of Belgium.
Date: 1992-07-09
20 It follows that Directive 84/631/EEC introduced a comprehensive system which relates inter alia to transfrontier shipments of hazardous waste with a view to its disposal in defined establishments and is based on the obligation on the part of the holder of the waste to give prior notification in detail. The relevant national authorities have the right to raise objections, and hence to prohibit a particular shipment of hazardous waste (as opposed to general plans for shipments of hazardous waste), in order to deal with problems relating to environmental and health protection as well as to public safety and public policy. This system thus leaves no scope for Member States to prohibit such shipments generally.
21 It must therefore be held that the contested Belgian rules, in so far as they preclude the application of the procedure laid down in the directive and introduce an absolute prohibition on the import into Wallonia of hazardous waste, are not consistent with the directive in question even though they provide that certain derogations may be granted by the relevant authorities.
Articles 30 and 36 of the Treaty
25 The Belgian Government argued that waste which was not recyclable and not reusable could not be regarded as "goods" within the meaning of Article 30 et seq. of the Treaty. It had no intrinsic commercial value and thus could not be the subject of a sale. Operations for the disposal or tipping of such waste came under the Treaty provisions on the freedom to provide services.
26 In response to that argument, suffice it to note that objects which are shipped across a frontier for the purposes of commercial transactions are subject to Article 30, whatever the nature of those transactions.
27 As was explained to the Court, moreover, the distinction between recyclable and non-recyclable waste is particularly difficult to apply in practice, especially with respect to controls at frontiers. That distinction is based on factors which are uncertain and liable to change in the course of time according to technical progress. Furthermore, whether waste is recyclable or not also depends on the cost of the recycling process and consequently on whether its proposed reutlization is viable, with the result that classification of waste is necessarily subjective and depends on variable factors.
28 It must therefore be concluded that waste, whether recyclable or not, is to be regarded as "goods" the movement of which, in accordance with Article 30 of the Treaty, must in principle not be prevented.
30 With respect to the environment, it is important to note that waste is matter of a special kind. Accumulation of waste, even before it becomes a health hazard, constitutes a danger to the environment, regard being had in particular to the limited capacity of each region or locality for waste reception.
34 Imperative requirements can indeed be taken into account only in the case of measures which apply without distinction to both domestic and imported products (see inter alia the judgment in Joined Cases C-1/90 and C-176/90 Aragonesa de Publicidad Exterior and Publivía [1991] ECR I-4151). However, in assessing whether or not the barrier in question is discriminatory, account must be taken of the particular nature of waste. The principle that environmental damage should as a matter of priority be remedied at source, laid down by Article 130r (2) of the Treaty as a basis for action by the Community relating to the environment, entails that it is for each region, municipality or other local authority to take appropriate steps to ensure that its own waste is collected, treated and disposed of; it must accordingly be disposed of as close as possible to the place where it is produced, in order to limit as far as possible the transport of waste.