26.5.2012

Official Journal of the European Union

C 151/18

(Case C-113/12)

2012/C 151/31

Language of the case: English

Referring court

Supreme Court, Ireland

Parties to the main proceedings

Applicant: Donal Brady

Defendant: Environmental Protection Agency

Questions referred

In the absence of a definitive interpretation of the meaning of ‘waste’ for the purposes of Union law, is a Member State permitted by national law to impose upon a producer of pig slurry the obligation to establish that it is not waste, or is waste to be determined by reference to objective criteria of the type referred to in the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union:

1.If waste is to be determined by reference to objective criteria of the type referred to in the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union, what level of certainty of re-use of pig slurry is required, which a licensee collects and stores or may store for upwards of 12 months, pending its transfer to users?

2.If pig slurry is waste, or is determined to be waste in accordance with the application of the appropriate criteria, is it lawful for a Member State to impose upon its producer — who does not use it on his own lands, but disposes of it to third party landowners for use as fertilisers on those third parties’ lands — personal liability for compliance by those users with Union legislation concerning the control of waste and/or fertilisers, in order to ensure that the third parties’ use of that pig slurry by land spreading will not give rise to a risk of significant environmental pollution?

3.Is the aforesaid pig slurry excluded from the scope of the definition of ‘waste’ by virtue of Article 2(1)(b)(iii) of Directive 75/442/EEC (1), as amended by Council Directive 91/156 (2), by reason of its being ‘already covered by other legislation’, and in particular by Council Directive 91/676/EEC (3), in circumstances where, at the time the licence was granted, Ireland had not transposed Council Directive 91/676/EEC, no other domestic legislation controlled the application of pig slurry to land as fertiliser, and Council Regulation (EC) No 1774/2002 (4) had not then been adopted?

Council Directive 75/442/EEC of 15 July 1975 on waste

OJ L 194, p. 39

Council Directive 91/156/EEC of 18 March 1991 amending Directive 75/442/EEC on waste

OJ L 78, p. 32

Council Directive 91/676/EEC OF 12 December 1991 concerning the protection of waters against pollution caused by nitrates from agricultural sources

OJ L 375, p. 1

Regulation (EC) No 1774/2002 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 3 October 2002 laying down health rules concerning animal by-products not intended for human consumption

OJ L 273, p. 1