Important legal notice

62001C0047

European Court reports 2002 Page I-08231

Opinion of the Advocate-General

The purpose of this Directive is to approximate the laws of the Member States on the controlled disposal of PCBs, the decontamination or disposal of equipment containing PCBs and/or the disposal of used PCBs in order to eliminate them completely on the basis of the provisions of this Directive.'

3. Article 3 provides:

Without prejudice to their international obligations, Member States shall take the necessary measures to ensure that used PCBs are disposed of and PCBs and equipment containing PCBs are decontaminated or disposed of as soon as possible. For the equipment and the PCBs contained therein, which are subject to inventory in accordance with Article 4(1), decontamination and/or disposal shall be effected at the latest by the end of 2010.

In order to comply with Article 3, Member States shall ensure that inventories are compiled of equipment with PCB volumes of more than 5 dm3, and shall send summaries of such inventories to the Commission at the latest three years after the adoption of this Directive. In the case of power capacitors, the threshold of 5 dm3 shall be understood as including all the separate elements of a combined set.

- plans for the decontamination and/or disposal of inventoried equipment and the PCBs contained therein;

- outlines for the collection and subsequent disposal of equipment which is not subject to inventory in accordance with Article 4(1), as referred to in Article 6(3).

8. Spain contests the alleged infringements: it claims that the national plan for the decontamination and elimination of PCBs, PCTs and equipment containing them was adopted, was published in the Spanish official journal, as prescribed by Royal Decree 1378/99 of 27 August 1999 which transposes the Directive into national law, and was subsequently notified to the Commission.

10. Spain denies in its rejoinder the Commission's contentions regarding the content of the plan and argues at length that it conforms to the requirements of the Directive.

12. It follows that the Commission's application is well founded.

Conclusion

13. Accordingly the Court should in my opinion:

(1) declare that, by not drawing up within the prescribed time-limit the plan, the outline and the summary of the inventory provided for by Article 4(1) and Article 11 of Council Directive 96/59/EC of 16 September 1996 on the disposal of polychlorinated biphenyls and polychlorinated terphenyls (PCB/PCT), the Kingdom of Spain has failed to fulfil its obligations under those provisions of the Directive;

(2) order the Kingdom of Spain to pay the costs.