Grand Duchy of Luxemburg v Berthe Linster, Aloyse Linster and Yvonne Linster.

• Jurisdiction: European Union
• Celex Number: 61998CJ0287
• ECLI: ECLI:EU:C:2000:468
• Docket Number: C-287/98
• Court: Court of Justice (European Union)
• Procedure Type: Reference for a preliminary ruling
• Date: 19 September 2000

Judgment of the Court of 19 September 2000. - Grand Duchy of Luxemburg v Berthe Linster, Aloyse Linster and Yvonne Linster. - Reference for a preliminary ruling: Tribunal d'arrondissement de Luxembourg - Grand Duchy of Luxemburg. - Environment - Directive 85/337/EEC - Assessment of the effects of certain public and private projects - Specific act of national legislation - Effect of the directive. - Case C-287/98.

European Court reports 2000 Page I-06917

Summary
Parties
Grounds
Decision on costs
Operative part

Keywords

1. Environment - Assessment of the effects of certain projects on the environment - Directive 85/337 - Assessment procedure - Discretion of the Member States - Power of national courts to review whether the limits of the discretion are observed

(Council Directive 85/337, Arts 5 and 6(2))

2. Community law - Interpretation - Principle of uniform interpretation

3. Environment - Assessment of the effects of certain projects on the environment - Directive 85/337 - Scope - Projects the details of which are adopted by a specific act of national legislation - Not covered

(Council Directive 85/337, Art. 1(5))

Summary

1. A national court, called on to examine the legality of a procedure for the expropriation in the public interest, in connection with the construction of a motorway, of immovable property belonging to a private individual, may review whether the national legislature kept within the limits of the discretion set by Directive 85/337 on the assessment of the effects of certain public and private projects on the environment, in particular where prior assessment of the environmental impact of the project has not been carried out, the information gathered in accordance with Article 5 has not been made available to the public and the members of the public concerned have not had an opportunity to express an opinion before the project is initiated, contrary to the requirements of Article 6(2) of Directive 85/337.

( see para. 39 and operative part 1 )

2. The need for uniform application of Community law and the principle of equality require that the terms of a provision of Community law which makes no express reference to the law of the Member States for the purpose of determining its meaning and scope must normally be given a uniform and autonomous interpretation throughout the Community; that interpretation must take into account the context of the provision and the purpose of the legislation in question.

( see para. 43 )

3. On a proper construction of Article 1(5) of Directive 85/337 on the assessment of the effects of certain public and private projects on the environment - which excludes from the directive's scope projects whose details are adopted by a specific act of national legislation - a measure adopted by a parliament after public parliamentary debate constitutes a specific act of national legislation within the meaning of that provision where the legislative process has enabled the objectives pursued by Directive 85/337, including that of supplying information, to be achieved, and the information available to the parliament at the time when the details of the project were adopted was equivalent to that which would have been submitted to the competent authority in an ordinary procedure for granting consent for a project.

( see para. 59 and operative part 3 )

Parties

In Case C-287/98,

REFERENCE to the Court under Article 177 of the EC Treaty (now Article 234 EC) by the Tribunal d'Arrondissement de Luxembourg (Luxembourg) for a preliminary ruling in the proceedings pending before that court between

State of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg

and

Berthe Linster,

Aloyse Linster,

Yvonne Linster,

on the interpretation of Council Directive 85/337/EEC of 27 June 1985 on the assessment of the effects of certain public and private projects on the environment (OJ 1985 L 175, p. 40), in particular Article 1(5) thereof, and of Articles 177 and 189 of the EC Treaty (now Article 249 EC) as regards the effect to be accorded to that directive,

THE COURT,

composed of: G.C. Rodríguez Iglesias, President, J.C. Moitinho de Almeida, L. Sevón (Rapporteur) and R. Schintgen, Presidents of Chambers, P.J.G. Kapteyn, C. Gulmann, P. Jann, H. Ragnemalm, M. Wathelet, V. Skouris and F. Macken, Judges,

Advocate General: P. Léger,

Registrar: L. Hewlett, Administrator,

after considering the written observations submitted on behalf of:

- the State of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, by T. Frieders-Scheifer and P. Kinsch, of the Luxembourg Bar,

- Berthe Linster, Aloyse Linster and Yvonne Linster, by M. Elvinger, of the Luxembourg Bar,

- the United Kingdom Government, by J.E. Collins, Assistant Treasury Solicitor, acting as Agent, and D. Wyatt QC, and

- the Commission of the European Communities, by P. Stancanelli, of its Legal Service, and O. Couvert-Castéra, a national civil servant on secondment its Legal Service, acting as Agents,

having regard to the Report for the Hearing,

after hearing the oral observations of the State of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, of Berthe Linster, Aloyse Linster and Yvonne Linster, of the United Kingdom Government and of the Commission at the hearing on 12 October 1999,

after hearing the Opinion of the Advocate General at the sitting on 11 January 2000,

gives the following

Judgment

Grounds

1 By order of 15 July 1998, received at the Court on 27 July 1998, the Tribunal d'Arrondissement de Luxembourg (District Court, Luxembourg) referred to the Court for a preliminary ruling under Article 177 of the EC Treaty (now Article 234 EC) a number of questions on the interpretation of Council Directive 85/337/EEC of 27 June 1985 on the assessment of the effects of certain public and private projects on the environment (OJ 1985 L 175, p. 40; hereinafter the Directive), in particular Article 1(5) thereof, and of Articles 177 and 189 of the EC Treaty (now Article 249 EC) as regards the effect to be accorded to the Directive.

2 Those questions were raised in proceedings between the State of the Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg and Berthe Linster, Aloyse Linster and Yvonne Linster (hereinafter the Linsters) concerning the expropriation of parcels of land belonging to them for the purpose of construction of Section II - Hellange to Mondorf-les-Bains - of the motorway link between the South Distributor Road and the German road network (hereinafter the motorway link with Saarland).

Relevant provisions

The Directive

3 As stated in Article 1(1) thereof, the Directive applies to the assessment of the environmental effects of those public and private projects which are likely to have significant effects on the environment.

4 Article 1(2) of the Directive defines project as:

- the execution of construction works or of other installations or schemes,

- other interventions in the natural surroundings and landscape including those involving the extraction of mineral resources.

5 Article 1(5) provides that the Directive shall not apply to projects the details of which are adopted by a specific act of national legislation, since the objectives of [the] Directive, including that of supplying information, are achieved through the legislative process.

6 Article 2(1) states:

Member States shall adopt all measures necessary to ensure that, before consent is given, projects likely to have significant effects on the environment by virtue, inter alia, of their nature, size or location are made subject to an assessment with regard to their effects.

These projects are defined in Article 4.

7 Under Article 4(1), projects of the classes listed in Annex I to the Directive are as a rule to be made subject to an assessment in accordance with Articles 5 to 10. Those projects include the construction of motorways, express roads ..., referred to in paragraph 7 of Annex I.

8 In essence, Article 5 of the Directive specifies the information to be provided as a minimum by the developer; Article 6 requires the Member States to take the measures necessary to ensure that the authorities and members of the public concerned are informed and are able to express an opinion before the project is initiated; Article 8 requires the competent authorities to...