The Commission’s Omission to Use Article 267 tfeu as a Tool to Enforce eu Environmental Law

Abstract

The present contributions examines if and to what extent preliminary judgments by the Court of Justice were used as an enforcement tool and helped the full legal and practical application of EU environmental legislation. Looking at available data about the use of this procedure and at the enforcement practice of Member States and the EU commission it is concluded that neither the means of preliminary reference according to Article 267 nor the infringement procedure under Article 258 TFEU are systematically exploited for effective enforcement of EU environmental law. In particular, it becomes evident, that Commission does not assume its role as environmental law enforcement authority. It rather acts as an opportunist political body which sometimes takes into consideration the rule of law, but sometimes not.