Commission action to annul shipments of waste regulation dismissed

The European Court of Justice has dismissed a Commission request to annul Regulation (EC) No 1013/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 June 2006 on shipments of waste (OJ 2006 L 190, p. 1) on account of the fact that it is based solely on Article 175(1) EC and not on Articles 175(1) and 133 EC. Establishing Article 175(1) EC as the sole legal basis for the contested Regulation is significant as it restricts the competence of the EU, and confers competence on the Member States in the area of regulating exports and imports of waste.

The Commission claimed that the choice of Article 175 as the sole legal basis would inevitably lead to a distortion of competition on external markets between undertakings established in Member States and give rise to disturbances in the internal Community market. The ECJ ruled, however, that as the contested regulation was aimed primarily at protecting human health and the environment against the potentially adverse effects of cross-border shipments of waste, it was correctly based on Article 175(1) EC. In dismissing the action, the ECJ ordered the Commission to pay the costs. (See Eurobrief 150).

The Judgement can be found here:

http://curia.europa.eu/jurisp/cgi-bin/form.pl?lang=EN&Submit=Rechercher$docrequire=alldocs&numaff=C-411/06&datefs=&datefe=&nomusuel=&domaine=&mots=&resmax=100