18.9.2017

Official Journal of the European Union

C 309/11

(Joined Cases C-196/16 and C-197/16) (<a id="ntc1-C_2017309EN.01001101-E0001" href="#ntr1-C_2017309EN.01001101-E0001"> (<span class="super note-tag">1</span>)</a>

((Reference for a preliminary ruling - Environment - Directive 85/337/EEC - Directive 2011/92/EU - Possibility of carrying out, a posteriori, an environmental impact assessment of an operational plant for the production of energy from biogas with a view to obtaining a new consent))

(2017/C 309/14)

Language of the cases: Italian

Referring court

Parties to the main proceedings

Applicants: Comune di Corridonia (C-196/16), Comune di Loro Piceno (C-197/16), Marcello Bartolini (C-197/16), Filippo Bruè (C-197/16), Sergio Forti (C-197/16), Stefano Piatti (C-197/16), Gaetano Silvetti (C-197/16), Gianfranco Silvetti (C-197/16), Rocco Tirabasso (C-197/16), Sante Vagni (C-197/16), Albergo Ristorante Le Grazie Sas di Forti Sergio & Co. (C-197/16), Suolificio Elefante Srl (C-197/16), Suolificio Roxy Srl (C-197/16), Aldo Alessandrini (C-197/16)

Defendants: Provincia di Macerata, Provincia di Macerata Settore 10 — Ambiente

Intervening parties: VBIO1 Società Agricola Srl (C-196/16), Regione Marche, Agenzia Regionale per la Protezione Ambientale delle Marche — (ARPAM) — Dipartimento Provinciale di Macerata, ARPAM, VBIO2 Società Agricola Srl (C-197/16), Azienda Sanitaria Unica Regionale — Marche (ASUR Marche) (C-197/16), ASUR Marche — Area Vasta 3 (C-197/16), Comune di Colmurano (C-197/16), Comune di Loro Piceno (C-197/16)

Operative part of the judgment

In the event of failure to carry out an environmental impact assessment required under Council Directive 85/337/EEC of 27 June 1985 on the assessment of the effects of certain public and private projects on the environment, as amended by Directive 2009/31/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 April 2009, EU law, on the one hand, requires Member States to nullify the unlawful consequences of that failure and, on the other hand, does not preclude regularisation through the conducting of an impact assessment, after the plant concerned has been constructed and has entered into operation, on condition that:

—national rules allowing for that regularisation do not provide the parties concerned with an opportunity to circumvent the rules of EU law or to dispense with applying them, and

—an assessment carried out for regularisation purposes is not conducted solely in respect of the plant’s future environmental impact, but must also take into account its environmental impact from the time of its completion.

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(<a id="ntr1-C_2017309EN.01001101-E0001" href="#ntc1-C_2017309EN.01001101-E0001">(<span class="super">1</span>)</a> OJ C 251, 11.7.2016).