12As regards the poor quality of bathing waters, the Commission argues that, according to the case-law of the Court of Justice (Case C-56/90 Commission v United Kingdom [1993] ECR I-4109, paragraph 43, Case C-198/97 Commission v Germany [1999] ECR I-3257, paragraph 35, and Case C-307/98 Commission v Belgium [2000] ECR I-3933, paragraphs 48 and 49), Article 4(1) of the Directive is not to be understood as meaning that the Member States need only endeavour to adopt all reasonably feasible measures. On the contrary, that provision imposes upon Member States an obligation to achieve a particular result, requiring them to do whatever is necessary to ensure that the quality of bathing water within their territory actually conforms to the limit values by no later than 10 years after notification of the Directive, that period being longer than the two-year period laid down generally for implementation of the Directive in order to give the Member States time to satisfy the requirement.
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