Judgment_paragraph 37 · Commission of the European Communities v Kingdom of Spain (C-186/06)

37That finding cannot be called into question by the mere fact that the project, as the Kingdom of Spain has, in essence, submitted, is of considerable importance to the economic and social development of the area which it affects. The Member States' ability significantly to harm areas which ought to have been classified as SPAs and which, in accordance with paragraphs 27 and 28 of the present judgment, fall within the scheme laid down in the first sentence of Article 4(4) of the Birds Directive cannot, in any event, be justified by economic and social requirements (see, to that effect, Case C-57/89 Commission v Germany [1991] ECR I-883, paragraphs 21 and 22).