25The Republic of Austria cannot avoid the latter obligations by claiming that the national catalogue is better able to improve the effectiveness of waste management and protection of the environment. The measures taken by the Community pursue that objective precisely by means of a common reference nomenclature. Consequently, submits the Commission, the Member States are not entitled to depart from the EWC on the ground that their national provisions are of better quality than the Community provisions. The Commission points out, moreover, that the EWC was the subject of a favourable opinion from the committee set up by Article 18 of Directive 75/442. The argument that the non-transposition into Austrian law of the EWC does not harm the proper functioning of the internal market cannot be accepted either, since a finding of a failure to fulfil obligations does not depend on a finding of damage caused by the Member State (Case C-263/96 Commission v Belgium [1997] ECR I-7453, paragraph 30).
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