WRITTEN QUESTION No. 2099/98 by Undine-Uta BLOCH von BLOTTNITZ to the Commission. EU Wild Birds Directive 79/409/ EEC
C 13/148 Official Journal of the European Communities EN 18. 1. 1999 Answer given by Mrs Bonino on behalf of the Commission (28 July 1998) The aquaculture legislation in Denmark is both comprehensive and restrictive and is due to the general pollution situation in Denmark where high standards for water treatment in general have been enforced through legislation. For the freshwater fish farming industry, the national goal is to reduce the environmental impact by 50 %. The basic philosophy of the legislation is to control the environmental impact from fish farming through limits on maximum use of fish feeds. Each farm is allocated a certain annual amount of feed. While this means of control is not used in other Member States, the EC Treaty does not prevent Member States adopting measures to protect the environment which are stricter than those laid down in Community law. (1999/C 13/210) WRITTEN QUESTION E-2099/98 by Undine-Uta Bloch von Blottnitz (V) to the Commission Subject: EU Wild Birds Directive 79/409/EEC (10 July 1998) The legislation on hunting at Federal and Land level in the Federal Republic of Germany in many cases infringes the European Wild Birds Directive 79/409/EEC (1). 1. 2. How many complaints on this subject have been lodged with the Commission to date? How many infringement proceedings have been initiated by the Commission on this subject? Has the European Court of Justice given judgments on this matter? If so, can the Commission indicate the 3. date and case number of the judgments concerned? (1) OJ L 103, 25. 4. 1979, p. 1. Answer given by Mr Santer on behalf of the Commission (14 September 1998) To date, 646 complaints reporting infringements of Directive 79/409/EC on the conservation of wild birds 1. have been lodged with the Commission. There have been 54 complaints against Germany. 2. The Commission began infringement proceedings following each complaint. Complaints about similar facts were grouped together. At this point, three cases of infringement proceedings against Germany for failure to meet obligations resulting from Directive 79/409/EC are still in motion. Following legal action taken by the Commission for failure to meet obligations resulting from Directive 3. 79/409/EC, the Court gave judgment against Germany in the following cases: › C-412/85 (judgment given on 17 September 1987) › C-288/88 (judgment given on 3 July 1990) › C-57/89 (judgment given on 28 February 1991) › C-345/92 (judgment given on 23 March 1998) (Article 171 proceedings for failure to comply with the judgment given on 17 September 1987). Case C-121/97 was removed from the register after Germany took steps to comply with the Courtís judgment. This case had been opened on the basis of Article 171 of the EC Treaty for failure to comply with the judgment of 3 July 1990