Commission of the European Communities v United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
Date: 2004-07-15
17. It must be borne in mind that, as the Court held in its judgment in Case C-102/97 Commission  v Germany  [1999] ECR I-5051, paragraph 35, one of the main objectives of the Directive was to give priority to the processing of waste oils by regeneration. That objective, expressed in the second recital in the preamble to the Directive, is inspired by the fact that regeneration is the most rational way of re-using waste oils in view of the energy savings which can be achieved.
19. Only where waste oils are neither regenerated nor burned, on account of the constraints mentioned in Article 3(1) and (2) of the Directive, are Member States subject to the even more subsidiary obligation, laid down in paragraph 3 of the same article, to take the measures necessary to ensure their safe destruction or their controlled storage or tipping (see Commission  v Germany , paragraph 37).
20. As regards the method to which priority is given, that is, the processing of waste oils by regeneration, it must be observed, as the Court held in paragraphs 38 and 39 of Commission  v Germany , that the reference to ‘technical, economic and organisational constraints’ in Article 3(1) of the Directive forms part of a provision giving general expression to the obligation imposed on Member States and that the Community legislature did not intend thereby to provide limited exceptions to a rule having general application, but to define the scope and content of a positive obligation to give priority to the processing of waste oils by regeneration.
21. It follows, as the Court has also pointed out, that the definition of such constraints cannot be left to the exclusive discretion of the Member States. Apart from being contrary to the principle of the uniform interpretation and application of Community law, interpretation by the Member States alone would make the compatibility of processing by regeneration with technical, economic and organisational constraints a condition the fulfilment of which would depend entirely on a policy assessment on the part of the Member State concerned (see Commission  v Germany , paragraph 40).
22. As regards the argument put forward by the United Kingdom that the scope of the obligation contained in Article 3(1) of the Directive varies according to the circumstances in each Member State and that adverse circumstances prevailing in a Member State may constitute constraints of such an extreme nature that there is no duty to give priority to the regeneration of waste oils, it must be stated, as the Court observed in paragraph 43 of Commission  v Germany , that if the technical, economic and organisational circumstances obtaining in a Member State were considered automatically to constitute constraints making it impossible to adopt the measures provided for in Article 3(1) of the Directive, that provision would be deprived of all practical effect, since the obligation imposed on Member States would be limited by maintenance of the status quo, with the result that Article 3(1) would not impose a genuine obligation to take the measures necessary for the processing of waste oils by regeneration.
23. Furthermore, in answer to the argument of the United Kingdom Government that the reference to ‘technical, economic or organisational constraints’ means that the Community legislature recognises that Member States have a margin of discretion, it should be noted that the provision relating to constraints must be understood as an expression of the principle of proportionality; accordingly, Member States are under an obligation to take measures appropriate and proportionate to the objective of giving priority to the processing of waste oils by regeneration, which is to say that the limit to that positive obligation is the existence of the technical, economic and organisational constraints referred to in Article 3(1) of the Directive ( Commission v Germany , paragraph 42).
25. Consequently, although it is acceptable that Member States first carry out studies and draw up reports in order to determine how waste oils should be disposed of, those preparatory steps must nevertheless be followed by tangible measures aimed at giving priority to regeneration, in order to comply with the obligation laid down by Article 3(1) of the Directive.
31. In any event, 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 the Member State at the end of the period laid down in the reasoned opinion (see, in particular, Case C-147/00 Commission v France  [2001] ECR I‑2387, paragraph 26; Case C-173/01 Commission  v Greece [2002] ECR I-6129, paragraph 7; and Case C-114/02 Commission  v France  [2003] ECR I-3783, paragraph 9).