Announcement
This EEL News Service is the first after our summer break. During this break, we worked hard at preparing improvements to both the EEL Website and the News Service. These improvements will consist of, inter alia, a new look of the website and hyperlinks in the News Service (making items ´clickable´), and will be implemented the coming months.
Furthermore, we will start paying attention to specific environmental themes of the present Dutch Presidency. In this News Service, in this respect an upcoming international conference on the environment and health is mentioned on which more information will follow.
We are also in the process of expanding our network of correspondents for developments in the EU Member States, the accession countries and other neighbouring countries (the ´National pages´at the EEL Website).
A final point worth noticing concerns the language regime of our website. As you might have heard, the accession of 10 new Member States has caused a backlog in translations within the EU. We decided to report to you important new environmental case law, even when the English translation is not yet ready. In this News Service you will thus find links to such cases, with a small comment from our side in English for your convienance.
We hope that in this way we can do a better job in keeping you informed on new developments in European Environmental Law and look forward for your reactions to our efforts.
The editors
Added to Legislation page, Directives:
* Parliament and Council Directive 2002/49/EC of 25 June 2002 relating to the assessment and management of environmental noise
Added to Case law page:
* C-214/03 Commission v Austria, ECJ 8 July 2004 (available in German and French)
Austria was condemned for several deficiencies in the national rules implementing the important Directive 88/609/EEC on the limitation of emissions of certain pollutants into the air from large combustion plants (as amended by Directive 94/66/EC).
* C-27/03 Commission v Belgium, ECJ 8 July 2004 (available in French and Dutch)
In the earlier case C-236/99, the ECJ concluded that Belgium had failed to communicate a programme for the implementation of Directive 91/271. Belgium now became the latest in a series of EU states to be ruled in substantial breach of the Directive 91/271/EEC on Urban Waste Water Treatment. ECJ found that Belgium had failed to ensure adequate sewage collection in larger towns across the country, and that the fact that other Member States were also failing to implement this Directive correctly did not form a valid excuse.
* C-292/03 Commission v Finland, ECJ 8 July 2004 (available in French and Finnish)
Three countries – Finland, France and the UK – have become the first ones to be condemned by the ECJ for failing to transpose Directive 2000/53/EC on end-of life vehicles into national law by a deadline of 21 April 2002. Interestingly enough, none of the 15 ‘old’ Member States met the deadline. Below are two other judgments regarding France and UK.
* C-331/03 Commission v France, ECJ 1 July 2004 (available in French)
See above Case C-292/03.
* C-277/03 Commission v UK, ECJ 13 July 2004
See above Case C-292/03.
* C-302/03 Commission v. Italy, ECJ 10 June 2004
The Court condemned Italy for failure to transpose within the agreed deadline (9 April 2002) Council Directive 1999/22/EC relating to keeping of wild animals in zoos.
* C-457/02 Niselli (Opinion), ECJ 10 June 2004 (available in German)
Advocate-General Kokott advices the ECJ on the incompatibility of Italian waste law with Directive 75/442/EC where it concerns definitions and exceptions, and in the field of the non-application of changes in Italian criminal law which are contrary to that Directive.
Added to National page, Italy, News:
EU law infringement actions launched against Italy in the fields of:
* Protected areas
* Air
* Air quality
* Climate Change
* Habitats
* Water
* Urban wastewater
Added to Conferences page:
* 2-3 September 2004, Environmentally harmful subsidies and ways to eliminate them, Budapest, Hungary
* 9-11 September 2004, Fifth Annual Global Conference on Environmental Taxation Issues, Experience and Potential, Pavia, Italy
* 17 September 2004, Responsibility of Environmental Research, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
* 22 September–25 November 2004, 5-daagse Verdiepingscursus Milieurecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands
* 28 September 2004, IPPC, Vereniging voor Milieurecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands
* 15-16 October 2004, 9th Workshop of the European Ph.D. Network on International Climate Policy, Viterbo, Italy
* 3-4 November 2004, Geluid en trillingen en Nederland, Nieuwegein, The Netherlands
* 2-3 December 2004, International Conference on Environment and Health, Egmond aan Zee, The Netherlands
* 17 December 2004, Nationale Milieudag 2004, Den Haag, The Netherlands
* 4-6 July 2005, Non-CO2 Greenhouse Gases, Science, Control, Policy and Implementation, Utrecht, The Netherlands
Added to Links, GO Links:
* United Nations Environmental law website
Added to Links, Other Links:
* More on Green public procurement
The Commission issued a Handbook on environmental public procurement, called Buying Green, in which it is explained how public authorities can help save the environment and taxpayer’s money.
Updated:
*CV Leonardo Massai
*Dossier on Climate Change
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Editors-in-Chief:
Wybe Th. Douma (T.M.C. Asser Institute, The Hague)
Jens Hamer (Academy of European Law, Trier)
Editor:
Daria Ratsiborinskaya (Institute of European law, MGIMO, Moscow)
Technical realisation:
Marco van der Harst, Julien J.M. Simon
(T.M.C. Asser Institute, The Hague)
e-mail: eelnewsservices@asser.nl