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Publishers Abstract:
Probably no other piece of EC environmental legislation has caused as much controversy as Directive 75/442/EEC. In particular, the broad definition of waste laid down in Directive 75/442/EEC has caused heated debate over the years. The court's judgment in the case of Paul Van de Walle, Sep 7, 2004, annotated here is an important step in the clarification of some of those concepts. In particular, it provides a valuable analysis of the meaning of the terms discard and holder. Applying various criteria, the Court reached the conclusion that all types of pollutant which the holder unintentionally discards by way of an uncontrolled release into the soil are to be classed as waste within the meaning of Article 1(a) of directive 75/442. Furthermore, the Court stressed that the classification could not result from the implementation of national laws governing the conditions of use, protection or decontamination of the land where the spill occurred.
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