Added to Case law page:
* C-127/02, Landelijke Vereniging tot Behoud van de Waddenzee and Nederlandse Vereniging tot Bescherming van Vogels
ECJ 7 September 2004, nyr
The Court answered preliminary questions concerning article 6 of the Habitat Directive 92/43/EEC in relation to mechanical cockle fishing in the Dutch Waddenzee, a Special Area of Conservation. The Court explained that this activity falls within the concept of ‘plan or project’ within the meaning of Article 6(3) of the Directive. A plan or project likely to have significant effect on the site is only to be authorised if it is ascertained that it will not adversely affect the integrity of the site, i.e. where no reasonable scientific doubt remains as to the absence of such effects. In case of doubt, the precautionary principle as imbedded in Article 6 (3) prevents the authorities from authorising the plan or project. The national court can determine the lawfulness of an authorised plan or project by assessing whether the national authorities have observed the limits of the discretion as set out in Article 6(3), even when this provision has not been transposed into national legislation despite the expiry of the time limit. The provision has direct effect, in other words.
Added to Conferences page:
* 30 September – 1 October 2004, Environmental control: perspectives for cooperation, St. Petersburg, Russia
* 12-14 October 2004, 2nd Annual EU Sustainable Chemicals Management Conference, Brussels.
* 10-12 November 2004, Waste Management in the Europe of 25, What can we learn from each other?, Vienna, Austria
* 12 October–30 November 2004, Autumn lecture series: The EU and Sustainable Development, Internal and External Dimensions, Brussels, Belgium
* 13 November 2004, Does the EU lead Europe on environmental policy? Supranationalism and intergovernmentalism in regional environmental cooperation, Brussels, Belgium
* 25 November 2004, Learn about New Polish Environmental Legislation, London, UK
Added to Legislation page, National legislation, The Netherlands:
* May 2004 version of the English translation of the Dutch Environmental Management Act, full text.
Added to Links page:
* NGO links: IUCN Commission on Environmental Law and IUCN Environmental Law Centre
* GO links: A database of environmental information and full text documents for national and international legal instruments
Added to Dossiers page:
* Update of Francovich Follow-up dossier (by G. Betlem)
* Implementation of EC law dossier, Annual Surveys: Fifth Annual Survey on the Implementation and Enforcement of Community Environmental Law 2003
Main parts: 1) details of infringement cases that have been initiated by the Commission in each sector of Community environmental law during 2003; 2) description of development of the work that is currently being carried out by IMPEL; 3) list of environmental Directives that Member States should have transposed during 2003 & details of the adopted national transposition measures; and 4)(Annex) a Scoreboard showing per Member State and per sector the number of non-communication, non-conformity and horizontal bad application cases.
Added to National pages:
* Update of France page (by C. Dupont)
* Update of Netherlands page May 2004 version of the English translation of the Dutch Environmental Management Act, full text.
* Update of United Kingdom page (by F. Mucklow)
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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: mailto:eelnewsservices@asser.nl