C-298/97

JUDGMENT OF 28. 5. 1998 — CASE C-298/97

JUDGMENT OF THE COURT (Fifth Chamber) 28 May 1998 *

In Case C-298/97,

Commission of the European Communities, represented by Fernando Castillo de la Torre, of its Legal Service, acting as Agent, with an address for service in Luxembourg at the office of Carlos Gómez de la Cruz, of its Legal Service, Wagner Centre, Kirchberg,

applicant,

v

THE COURT (Fifth Chamber),

composed of: C. Gulmann (Rapporteur), President of the Chamber, M. Wathelet, J. C. Moitinho de Almeida, P. Jann and L. Sevón, Judges,

Advocate General: G. Cosmas, Registrar: R. Grass,

having regard to the Report of the Judge-Rapporteur,

after hearing the Opinion of the Advocate General at the sitting on 19 March 1998,

gives the following

— promotion of marketing of batteries and accumulators containing smaller quantities of dangerous substances and/or less polluting substances,

— gradual reduction, in household waste, of spent batteries and accumulators covered by Annex I to the Directive,

— promotion of research aimed at reducing the dangerous-substance content and favouring the use of less polluting substitute substances in batteries and accu­ mulators, and research into methods of recycling,

— separate disposal of spent batteries and accumulators covered by Annex I.

The first programmes were to cover a four-year period starting on 18 March 1993 and were to be communicated to the Commission by 17 September 1992 at the latest.

3 Since the Kingdom of Spain had not yet communicated the abovementioned pro­ grammes to it, on 10 July 1995 the Commission, in the absence of any other infor­ mation enabling it to conclude that the Kingdom of Spain had fulfilled its obliga­ tion to draw up the programmes, formally called on that State, in accordance with Article 169 of the EC Treaty, to submit its observations within two months.

7 On 20 January 1997 the Kingdom of Spain informed the Commission that the Ministry of the Environment had just drawn up a draft national plan for urban waste providing for the development and coordination of all the action undertaken by the Autonomous Communities, the competent authorities for that purpose by virtue of Article 6 of Royal Decree No 45/96 which transposed the Directive into Spanish law.

8 Taking the view that it was incumbent on the Spanish authorities to ensure that the necessary procedures were completed in due time in order to draw up and adopt the said programmes within the prescribed period and to give notice thereof, the Commission formally determined that the Kingdom of Spain had not yet adopted the requisite provisions and decided to institute the present proceedings.

9 In its defence, the Kingdom of Spain does not deny that it has not prepared or communicated the programmes in question to the Commission. It merely states that the Directive has been transposed into Spanish law by Royal Decree No 45/96, Article 6 of which incorporates the provisions of Article 6 of the Directive and specifies that it is the Autonomous Communities which are responsible for giving effect to the programmes in question.

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JUDGMENT OF 28. 5. 1998 — CASE C-298/97

10 The Kingdom of Spain goes on to state that it is endeavouring gradually to achieve the result pursued by the Directive, in accordance with Article 189 of the EC Treaty. It considers that the result defined in Article 6 of the Directive cannot be achieved merely by drawing up programmes, which, in its view, have no value in themselves unless they are accompanied by specific action facilitating the actual attainment of the objectives defined in that article as constituting the substance of the programmes.

12 The Kingdom of Spain contends that specific action of that kind is being taken in all the Autonomous Communities with a view to attaining the objectives set by Article 6 of the Directive. It cites by way of example a series of initiatives of vari­ ous kinds undertaken on Spanish territory in order to attain those objectives, such as the Ley Básica de Residuos (Basic Law on Waste), which is a national statute, Ley No 6/93 Reguladora de los Residuos de Cataluña (Law on the Management of Waste in Catalonia), the agreements concluded between the autonomous adminis­ tration of Castile-León and the municipalities for which it is responsible in order to provide for management of the collection, storage and processing of spent bat­ teries and accumulators, the waste management plans drawn up in Aragon, Cata­ lonia and Galicia, the studies carried out in order to determine the pollutant poten­ tial of the various types of batteries and to establish disposal and recycling systems for them, the decrees of the Community of Valencia governing grants for separate collection, storage and processing of spent batteries, the direct contracts concluded with specialised undertakings in Asturias, the Balearic Islands and the Rioja region and the public information campaigns carried out in all the Autonomous Commu­ nities.

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COMMISSION v SPAIN

13 According to the Kingdom of Spain, those measures have resulted in specific action of a practical nature, in particular infrastructural investments making avail­ able to the population facilities for the effective collection of spent batteries. Those investments are intended not only to provide and distribute special containers for the collection of waste of that kind, but also to enable centres to be built for pro­ cessing and recycling and safe storage sites to be provided for batteries that cannot be recycled. As a result of that action as a whole, which is being taken in all the Autonomous Communities, the objectives of Article 6 of the Directive are being achieved in practice.

Costs

18 Under Article 69(2) of the Rules of Procedure, the unsuccessful party is to be ordered to pay the costs if they have been applied for in the successful party's pleadings. Since the Commission has asked for costs and the Kingdom of Spain has been unsuccessful, the Kingdom of Spain must be ordered to pay the costs.

On those grounds,

THE COURT (Fifth Chamber)

hereby:

1. Declares that, by not adopting within the prescribed period the programmes referred to in Article 6 of Council Directive 91/157/EEC of 18 March 1991 on batteries and accumulators containing certain dangerous substances, the Kingdom of Spain has failed to fulfil its obligations under that article;

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