31.8.2020

Official Journal of the European Union

C 287/12

(Case C-297/19) (1)

(Reference for a preliminary ruling - Environment - Environmental liability - Directive 2004/35/EC - Second indent of the third paragraph of Annex I - Damage not having to be classified as ‘significant damage’ - Concept of ‘normal management of sites, as defined in habitat records or target documents or as carried on previously by owners or operators’ - Article 2(7) - Concept of ‘occupational activity’ - Activity carried out in the public interest pursuant to a statutory assignment of tasks - Whether or not included)

(2020/C 287/17)

Language of the case: German

Referring court

Parties to the main proceedings

Applicant: Naturschutzbund Deutschland — Landesverband Schleswig-Holstein e.V.

Defendant: Kreis Nordfriesland

Other parties: Deich- und Hauptsielverband Eiderstedt, Körperschaft des öffentlichen Rechts; Vertreter des Bundesinteresses beim Bundesverwaltungsgericht

Operative part of the judgment

1.The concept of ‘normal management of sites, as defined in habitat records or target documents or as carried on previously by owners or operators’, in the second indent of the third paragraph of Annex I to Directive 2004/35/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 April 2004 on environmental liability with regard to the prevention and remedying of environmental damage, must be understood as covering, first, any administrative or organisational measure liable to have an effect on the protected species and natural habitats which are on a site, that measure being in the form resulting from the management documents adopted by the Member States on the basis of Council Directive 92/43/EEC of 21 May 1992 on the conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora and Directive 2009/147/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 November 2009 on the conservation of wild birds and interpreted, if need be, by reference to any domestic legal rule which transposes the latter two directives or, failing this, is compatible with the spirit and purpose of those directives, and second, any administrative or organisational measure that is regarded as usual, is generally recognised, is established and was carried out by the owners or operators for a sufficiently long period of time until the occurrence of damage caused by virtue of that measure to the protected species and natural habitats, all of those measures having, in addition, to be compatible with the objectives underlying Directive 92/43 and Directive 2009/147 and, inter alia, with commonly accepted agricultural practices.

2.Article 2(7) of Directive 2004/35 must be interpreted as meaning that the concept of ‘occupational activity’ which is defined therein also covers activities carried out in the public interest pursuant to a statutory assignment of tasks.

(1) OJ C 230, 8.7.2019.

ECLI:EU:C:2020:287