Opinion of the Advocate General — ECLI:EU:C:2005:277
Date: 2005-05-10
Language of the case: Dutch
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: Free movement of goods;Customs Union
Procedure: Reference for a preliminary ruling
Origin: Netherlands

Summary of the Judgment Own resources of the European Communities — Repayment or remission of import or export duties — Amount legally owed — Meaning — Failure properly to communicate the amount to the debtor — Included (Council Regulation No 2913/92, Arts 221(1) and 236(1), first para.) Article 236(1), first subparagraph, of Regulation No 2913/92 establishing the Community Customs Code provides that import duties or export duties shall be repaid in particular where it is established that ‘when they were paid the amount of such duties was not legally owed’. For the purposes of that provision, import duties or export duties are legally owed where a customs duty has been incurred within the conditions laid down by Chapter 2 of Title VII of that Code and where the amount of those duties could be determined by the application of the Common Customs Tariff in accordance with the provisions of Title II of that Code. The amount of the import duties or export duties remains legally owed within the meaning of that article, even where that amount has not been communicated to the debtor in accordance with Article 221(1) of the Code. The incurring of a customs debt precedes the communication of its amount and is therefore necessarily independent of that communication. That communication cannot therefore have an influence on the existence of the customs debt. (see paras 26, 29, operative part)