Commission of the European Communities v. French Republic

By application lodges at the Court registry on 12 February 2001 the Commission brought action under Article 226 EC for a declaration that France had failed to adopt all the necessary and appropriate measures to ensure that all the incinerators currently operating in France are either operated in accordance with the combustion conditions laid down by the Council Directive 89/369/EEC of 8 June 1989 on the Prevention of Air Pollution from new Municipal Waste Incineration Plants and Council Directive 89/429/EEC of 21 June 1989 on the Reduction of Air Pollution, or taken out of operation by due date of 1 December 1990. France replied that the Council Directives had been transposed into French Law by January 1991 and as a result of incinerators shutting down or being modified to comply with the rules the number of incinerators not meeting the prescribed condition had gone down from 27 in 1998 to 7 at the end of 1999. Besides that the French Government argued that shutting down all plants which did not comply with the rules was out of the question given the volumes of waste produced. The Court did not accept these arguments. Even assuming that a circumstance of that kind could serve as a valid justification for not complying with the obligations under Directive 89/429/EEC, the French Government had not shown that, if certain plants were taken out of service, it would in practice be impossible to transport municipal waste to neighboring plants as a temporary arrangement. The Court held that by failing to adopt all the necessary and appropriate measures to ensure that all incinerators in France are operated in accordance with the combustion conditions laid down by Council Directive 89/369/EEC of 8 June 1989 and 89/429/EEC of 21 June 1989, France had failed to fulfill its obligations under Article 4 (1) of the said Directives.