ECJ: In accordance with Article 5 EC, first, in areas which do not fall within its exclusive competence, which is the case at this stage as regards the environment, the Community is to take action, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity, only if and in so far as the objectives of the proposed action cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States and can therefore, by reason of the scale or effects of the proposed action, be better achieved by the Community and, second, action by the Community must not go beyond what is necessary to achieve the objectives of the Treaty.
