Brussels, 13/06/2013 (Agence Europe) - In a ruling on 13 June (case C-193/12), the European Court of Justice found France guilty of not meeting its obligations under the nitrates directive on water pollution, 91/676, in failing to have identify within the set time the zones vulnerable to nitrates in 2007.
The directive requires the member states to identify polluted water and areas at risk of pollution, to designate as areas vulnerable to nitrate pollution all locations in their country where run-off feeds into the vulnerable water and to establish for these vulnerable areas action plans to reduce and prevent said pollution.
The European Commission took France to court for failing, when, in 2007, it revised the list of vulnerable areas, to fully designate zones with polluted underground or surface water or areas affected or at risk of pollution from nitrates of more than 50 mg/l and/or current or potential eutrophication. The Commission says France should have carried out a complete assessment within the deadline given in the Commission's first warning letter (28 December 2011) for ten additional vulnerable areas in the Rhine-Meuse valleys, Loire-Brittany, Rhône-Mediterranean-Corsica and Adour-Garonne, because a full survey of vulnerable areas is crucial for establishing national action plans to prevent or reduce pollution, as laid down in the directive.
In its ruling, the Court of Justice says that, by the deadline set by the Commission for France to comply with the directive, France had still not listed a number of areas vulnerable to nitrate pollution or eutrophication and that any changes made since that date cannot be taken into account because, under the current rules, the compliance of a member state is to be judged in terms of the situation in that member state at the time of the deadline set out in the warning letter. The court has not yet set any fines.
The French government does not deny that it failed to comply, but says that the ten additional areas identified by the Commission that were not listed as vulnerable in 2007 did not necessarily have to be completely listed as such, because, for some of them, only part of the area was vulnerable. It says that it was foreseeable that it would be found guilty, but the procedure for revising vulnerable areas was in the process of revision on 28 December 2011. In order to avoid another complaint by the Commission and possibly another court case in which it might be fined, France issued a press release setting out a number of corrective measures, details of which will be sent to the EU Environment Commissioner. (FG/transl.fl)