25.2.2006   

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 48/14

Action brought on 29 November 2005 by the Commission of the European Communities against the French Republic

(Case C-423/05)

(2006/C 48/27)

Language of the case: French

An action against the French Republic was brought before the Court of Justice of the European Communities on 29 November 2005 by the Commission of the European Communities, represented by A. Caerios and M. Konstantinidis, acting as Agents, with an address for service in Luxembourg.

The Commission claims that the Court should:

1.

declare that by failing to take all necessary measures:

—

to ensure that waste is recovered or disposed of without endangering human health or the environment and to prohibit the abandonment, dumping or uncontrolled disposal of waste;

—

to ensure that any holder of waste has it handled by a private or public waste collector or by an undertaking which carries out disposal or recovery operations, or recovers or disposes of it himself, in accordance with Council Directive 75/442/EEC of 15 July 1975 on waste; (1)

—

to ensure that establishments and undertakings which carry out disposal operate with a permit issued by the competent authorities;

—

to ensure in relation to landfill sites which had been granted a permit or were already in operation when Council Directive 99/31/EC of 26 April 1999 on the landfill of waste (2) was to be transposed into national law, namely on 16 July 2001, that landfill operators prepared and presented to the competent authorities, for their approval, prior to 16 July 2002 a conditioning plan for the site, including particulars relating to the conditions of the permit and any corrective measures the operator considered would be needed, and that, following the presentation of conditioning plans, the competent authorities take a definite decision on whether operations may continue, taking all necessary measures to close down as soon as possible sites which have not been granted a permit to continue to operate or authorising the necessary work and laying down a transitional period for the completion of the plan,

the French Republic has failed to fulfil its obligations under Articles 4, 8 and 9 of Directive 75/442/EEC, as amended by Directive 91/156/EEC, (3) and Article 14(a), (b) and (c) of Directive 99/31/EC.

2.

order the French Republic to pay the costs.

Pleas in law and main arguments

The Commission considers that, by permitting a very large number of unlawful and unsupervised landfill sites to operate in France, and by failing to take all necessary measures to ensure that waste is disposed of without endangering human health and harming the environment, the French Republic has failed to fulfil its obligations under Articles 4, 8 and 9 of Council Directive 75/442/EEC on waste, as amended by Directive 91/156/EEC. The French authorities do not dispute that they have breached these obligations; they do dispute, however, the number of unlawful landfill sites indicated by the Commission and claim that their impact on the environment is slight since the unauthorised landfill sites take only green waste, rubble and bulky waste.

The French authorities did not provide adequate information for it to be possible to assess whether its permit system complies with the requirements of Article 9 of Directive 75/442/EEC: no permit is required for tips covering an area of less than 100 m2 with a height of less than 2m or for the recovery of waste on such tips. The French authorities' interpretation that only landfill sites operated by municipal authorities without a permit are unlawful sites is incorrect since an individual may also operate a landfill site without a permit.

On the basis of the information provided to it, the Commission can only assume that, contrary to the requirements under Article 14 of Directive 99/31/EC, establishments and undertakings carrying out waste disposal operations without being subject to a permit did not, prior to 16 July 2002, prepare or present to the competent authorities, for their approval, a conditioning plan for each unlawful or unsupervised landfill site. Any landfill site that cannot be adapted to the requirements of that directive must be closed down immediately. Operating an unlawful landfill without a conditioning plan and without a permit constitutes an infringement of Article 14 of Directive 99/31/EC.

(1)  OJ L 194, of 25.07.1975, p. 39.

(2)  OJ L 182, of 16.07.1999, p. 1.

(3)  OJ L 78, of 26.03.1991, p. 32.