Brussels, 04/03/2015 (Agence Europe) - The Court of Justice of the EU ruled on Wednesday 4 March (case C-534/13) that the Italian law which does not impose prevention and reparation measures against owners not responsible for pollution on their land is compatible with Union law.
The Court had been asked about the matter by the Italian Council of State, to which an appeal had been brought regarding a case in which the companies TWS Automation, Ivan and Fipa Group, which acquired various parcels of land which were highly polluted by the activities of the previous owner, the chemicals group Montedison, challenged the order of the Italian Ministry for the Environment to fit a hydraulic barrier to protect the water table, out of their own pockets.
The Italian judges wanted to know whether the national legislation - which does not allow owners who are not responsible for the pollution to be required to take prevention and remedy measures, but limits their responsibility as owners to cover the costs of de-pollution at the value of the land - does indeed comply with the “polluter pays” principle implemented by the directive on environmental responsibility (2004/35/EC).
The Court has responded by stating that the Italian legislation does comply with the directive. Indeed: - article 191§2 of the TFEU, which contains the principle of “polluter pays”, addresses the action of the Union and therefore cannot be invoked as such by an administrative authority or an individual to exclude the application of national legislation such as the one in this case; - in order for the principle of “polluter pays” as laid down in the directive to be applicable, there has to be a causal link between the activity of the operator and the environmental damage observed. However, in the present case, as this link cannot be established, the case comes under national legislation, the Court states. With regard to this, the directive leaves the member states the latitude to adopt measures such as, in this case, the possibility of ownership responsibility to cover the costs to the authorities of de-polluting the land, limited, under Italian law, to the value of the land as calculated after this de-pollution procedure. (Francesco Gariazzo)