ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the extent to which Member States retain competence to protect the environment where national environmental measures conflict with the free movement of goods. It introduces the reader to the manner in which the ECJ has struck a balance between the need for environmental protection and free trade. The ECJ has traditionally been at pains to underline that distinctly applicable measures cannot be justified under the Cassis rule of reason. Although now limited to a certain extent by the ECJ in Keck, the "Dassonville" formula has ensured that the scope of the Article 28 EC prohibition is broad in nature. If necessary to satisfy a mandatory requirement, a national measure which restricts free trade would now fall outside the scope of Article 28 EC. The ECJ has traditionally interpreted the grounds of justification in Article 30 EC restrictively.
