The Conseil d’Etat is asked to cancel the decree n°2003-30 of 10 January 2003 authorizing the national agency for the management of radioactive wastes (ANDRA) to modify the situation of a radioactive waste disposal site to a monitoring phase.

The claimant argued that the decree violated certain obligations of the Convention for the Protection of the Marine environment of the North-East Atlantic, and the precautionary approach and the principle of prevention.

The European Community is a party to the Convention for the Protection of the Marine environment of the North-East Atlantic since the decision of 7 October 1997. The provisions of articles 2-1 a) and 3 of the Convention include precise obligations and do not require any supplementary measures. They are consequently directly applicable in the national country. It judged that the decree complied with the Convention for the Protection of the Marine environment of the North-East Atlantic.

The Court stated that the principle of prevention of risks to the environment (article L.110-1 of Environmental Code) can be invoked against a decree adopted in the framework of the measures taken by the national agency for the management of Radioactive Waste to modify a radioactive waste disposal site. However the judge has a limited control on the measures taken according to this decree in order to comply with the prevention principle.  It ruled that the decree did not breach the precautionary approach and the principle of prevention.