Report for the Hearing in Case C-70/89

I — Facts and legislative background

By Directive 76/464/EEC of 4 May 1976 on pollution caused by certain dangerous substances discharged into the aquatic environment of the Community (Official Journal 1976 L 129, p. 23) the Council adopted a list of substances characterized by their toxicity, persistence and bioaccumulation. One of those substances was cadmium. Article 6 of the directive provides that the Council is to lay down limit values and quality objectives for those substances.

Council Directive 83/513/EEC of 26 September 1983 lays down those values and objectives for cadmium (Official Journal 1983 L 291, p. 1). The period within which that directive was to be implemented expired on 28 September 1985.

By letter of 28 October 1985, the Italian authorities informed the Commission that the rules required to be introduced under the directive corresponded to those already contained in various Italian legislative instruments, namely Law No 319 of 10 May 1976 concerning the protection of water against pollution (Gazzetta ufficiale della Republica italiana (GURI) No 641 of 29.5.1976), amending Law No 650 of 24 December 1979 (GURI No 352 of 29.12.1979), the circular of 29 December 1976 from the Interministerial Committee and the decision of that same committee of 4 February 1979 (ordinary supplement to GURI No 69 of 21.2.1977).

Considering that that legislation did not constitute adequate transposition of Directive 83/513, the Commission initiated the treaty infringement procedure. No reply was received either to the formal notice given in the letter of 2 September 1987 or to the reasoned opinion of 12 September 1988.

The Commission therefore decided to bring the present action.

II — Procedure

The Commission's application was received at the Court Registry on 7 March 1989.

The procedure followed the normal course. Upon hearing the report of the Judge-Rapporteur and the views of the Advocate General, the Court decided to open the oral procedure without any preparatory inquiry.

The Commission claims that the Court should:

The Italian Government did not ask for any form of order.

III — Arguments of the parties

According to the Commission, the failure to comply with directive 83/513 is apparent from the following considerations:

During the written procedure, the Italian Government did not deny its infringement. It stated that it had sought legislative authorization from Parliament to enable it to amend the laws in force in order to ensure proper transposition of the directive.

1 Language of the case: Italian.