Brussels, 22/12/2000 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission decided to return before the Court of Justice of the European Communities in view of obtaining the implementation by the United Kingdom and Germany of rulings concerning the environment in cases already judged by the Court. In the case of the United Kingdom, it concerns the non-respect of the Directive on bathing water with regards to two beaches located on the coast of Fylde in the North Western England. For Germany, it concerns the non-application of the Directive on the assessment of environmental impact. In both cases, the Commission called on the Court to impose daily fines: EUR 106,800 for the United Kingdom and EUR 237,600 for Germany.
The ruling made by the Court of Justice against the United Kingdom in 1993 notes that this county did not ensure that nine bathing areas located ion the coast of Fylde, North Western England, respect the requirement of the Directive on bathing water quality. After this ruling, the Commission accepted to wait for the results of the improvement programmes presented by the United Kingdom for the bathing water concerned, and aiming to ensure respect of the Directive for 1996. However it had to note that most of the bathing areas in question still do not respect the standards for the 1996 and 1997 seasons. For the 1998 and 1999 seasons, only three of the nine areas respect standards set by the Directive and two areas still do not respect the standards in 2000.
In the case of Germany, the Commission decided to form an appeal before the Court of Justice in virtue of Treaty Article 228 for non-respect of a Court ruling from 1998, condemning Germany, on the basis of several complaints, for non-respect of obligations imposed by the Directive concerning environmental impact assessment. The Commission reproaches German legislation of continuing to exclude whole classes of projects that should in Community law be the object of an environmental impact assessment. Though Germany has worked to fill these failings, the necessary legislation must still be adopted and sent to the Commission.