European Union – Environment. The Court of Justice of the European Union made a preliminary ruling, deciding that Directive (EC) 2004/35 should be interpreted as not precluding national legislation, which, in cases where it was impossible to identify the polluter of a plot of land or to have that person adopt remedial measures, did not permit the competent authority to require the owner of the land (who was not responsible for the pollution) to adopt preventive and remedial measures, that person being required merely to reimburse the costs relating to the measures undertaken by the competent authority within the limit of the market value of the site, determined after those measures had been carried out.