36In those circumstances, it must be held that, by authorising the irrigation project in the irrigable area of the Segarra-Garrigues Canal, the Member State concerned did not fulfil its obligation under the first sentence of Article 4(4) of the Birds Directive to take appropriate measures to avoid, in the areas affected by that project which ought to have been classified as SPAs, the prohibited disturbances, since that obligation exists, in accordance with the case-law of the Court, before any reduction is observed in the number of birds or any risk of a protected species becoming extinct has materialised (see Case 0355/90 Commission v Spain [1993] ECR I-4221, paragraph 15).