ECJ (Judgment) 1 Approximation of laws – Quality of fresh waters needing protection or improvement in order to support fish life and quality required of shellfish waters – Directives 78/659 and 79/923 – Need for exact transposition by the Member States
(Council Directives 78/659 and 79/923)
2 Member States – Obligations – Implementation of directives – Failure to implement – Justification – Not permissible
(EC Treaty, Art. 169)
3 Approximation of laws – Quality of fresh waters needing protection or improvement in order to support fish life and quality required of shellfish waters – Directives 78/659 and 79/923 – Obligation to establish specific programmes in order to reduce pollution
(Council Directives 78/659, Art. 5, and 79/923, Art. 5)
4 Directives 78/659 and 79/923 seek to protect human health through the monitoring of the quality of waters which support, or could support, fish suitable for human consumption or shellfish directly edible by man. This objective implies that in all cases where non-implementation of the measures required could endanger human health those concerned must be in a position to rely on mandatory rules in order to be able to assert their rights. Correct transposition therefore requires the adoption of measures which are indisputably binding.
5 A Member State may not plead provisions, practices or circumstances existing in its internal legal system in order to justify a failure to comply with the obligations and time-limits laid down in a directive.
6 It follows clearly from the wording of Article 5 of Directives 78/659 and 79/923 as well as from the detailed arrangements for monitoring water quality laid down by those directives that Member States have an obligation to establish specific programmes in order to reduce pollution of fresh waters and shellfish waters within five and six years respectively.
Neither, with regard to Directive 78/659, general water-purification programmes designed to reduce water pollution caused by effluent nor, with regard to Directive 79/923, the finding, through the taking of samples, that shellfish waters meet the requirements of that directive can exempt a Member State from the obligation to establish specific programmes in accordance with Article 5 of those directives.
Citations:
C-298/95, [1996] EUECJ C-298/95
Links:
European
Updated: 03 June 2022; Ref: scu.161679