ECJ 1. Wherever the provisions of a directive appear, as far as their subject-matter is concerned, to be unconditional and sufficiently precise, those provisions may be relied upon by an individual against the State where the State fails to implement the directive in national law by the end of the period prescribed or where it fails to implement the directive correctly.
In this connection a Community provision is unconditional where it is not subject, in its implementation or effects, to the taking of any measure either by the institutions of the Community or by the Member States and it is sufficiently precise to be relied on by an individual and applied by the court where the obligation which it imposes is set out in unequivocal terms.
2. Article 4 of Directive 75/442 on waste, which requires Member States to take the necessary measures to ensure that waste is disposed of without endangering human health and without harming the environment, does not confer on individuals rights which the national courts must safeguard.
That provision, in setting out the objectives which the Member States must observe in their performance of the more specific obligations imposed on them by other provisions of the directive, merely indicates a programme to be followed. It defines the framework for the action to be taken by the Member States regarding the treatment of waste and does not require, in itself, the adoption of specific measures or a particular method of waste disposal. It is therefore neither unconditional nor sufficiently precise and thus is not capable of conferring rights on which individuals may rely as against the State.
Citations:
C-236/92, [1994] EUECJ C-236/92
Links:
Jurisdiction:
European
Environment
Updated: 03 June 2022; Ref: scu.160942
