C-419/01
ECLI:EU:C:2003:64
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COMMISSION v SPAIN
OPINION OF ADVOCATE GENERAL JACOBS delivered on 30 January 2003 1
1. In this case the Commission seeks a 3. According to the Commission, it resulted declaration, pursuant to Article 226 EC, from the information supplied by Spain that, by proceeding to identify sensitive during the pre-contentions proceedings that zones only in certain regions of its territory, the Spanish State had designated the sensi- the Kingdom of Spain has failed to fulfil its tive areas in the waters within its jurisdic- obligations under Article 5 of Council tion, but that certain autonomous commu- Directive 91/271/EEC of 21 May 1991 nities had not done so in the waters within concerning urban waste water treatment. 2 their jurisdiction. In particular, while Andalusia, Galicia, Murcia and Cantabria had made the relevant designations, pub- lished them in their official journal and notified the Commission, other auton- omous communities had failed to make the necessary designations. The Commis- sion refers in that connection to Catalonia, the Balearic Islands, the Basque Country, Valencia, Astúria, the Canaries and the autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla.
2. Article 5(1) of Directive 91/271 required Member States to identify, by 31 December 1993, sensitive areas, according to criteria laid down in Annex II to the directive. Article 5(2) required Member States to ensure that urban waste water entering 4. In its defence Spain in effect accepts that collecting systems should, before discharge several of those authorities have indeed not into those areas, be subject to treatment designated the sensitive zones as required more stringent than that prescribed in other by the directive, since it states that those cases, and to do so by 31 December 1998 at authorities are in the process of completing the latest for all discharges from agglomer- the required designations. Only in relation ations of more than 10 000 p.e. (population to Melilla and Astúria does Spain seek equivalent). directly to refute the Commission's com- plaint: in the case of Melilla, on the ground that the latter's authorities have no juris- 1 Original language: English diction over the waters in question, and in 2 — OJ 1991 L 135, p. 40. the case of Astúria, that that community
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OPINION OF MR JACOBS — C-419/01
has no sensitive zone. On those two points, conclusion. For the rest, however, the since the Commission has not lodged a Commission's application is well founded. reply, it is not possible to reach a definitive
Conclusion
5. Accordingly, the Court should in my opinion:
(1) declare that, by proceeding to identify sensitive zones only in certain regions of its territory, the Kingdom of Spain has failed to fulfil its obligations under Article 5 of Council Directive 91/271/EEC of 21 May 1991 concerning urban waste water treatment;
(2) order the Kingdom of Spain to pay the costs.
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