ddrg/super_eurlex huggingface dataset:
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1 Actions for annulment - Actionable measures - Measures intended to have legal effects - Commission communication purporting to explain the consequences, in a particular sphere, of the provisions of the Treaty but creating new obligations for the Member States

(EC Treaty, Art. 173; Commission Communication 94/C 360/08)

2 Freedom to provide services - Freedom of establishment - Free movement of capital - Measures intended to promote the effective exercise of rights flowing therefrom - Exclusive competence of the Council - Commission communication, intended to produce legal effects of its own, on an internal market for pension funds - Measure adopted by authority lacking the necessary competence

(EC Treaty, Arts 57(2) and 66; Commission Communication 94/C 360/08)

Summary

3 An action for annulment is available in the case of all measures adopted by the institutions, whatever their nature or form, which are intended to have legal effects. This is so in the case of a Commission communication, published in the C series of the Official Journal, on an internal market for pension funds, where that communication is not confined to explaining the Treaty provisions, applicable to pension institutions, on freedom to provide services, freedom of establishment and free movement of capital, but lays down obligations with which the Member States must comply and which cannot be regarded as inherent in those provisions, and is thus intended to have legal effects of its own, distinct from those provided for by the Treaty. In that respect, the fact that the communication has not been notified to the Member States is irrelevant.

4 In the absence, in the Treaty, of any provision conferring such a power on the Commission, and in view of the fact that, in any event, only the Council is empowered, under Articles 57(2) and 66 of the Treaty, to issue directives for the coordination of the provisions laid down by law, regulation or administrative action in Member States concerning the taking up and pursuit of activities as self-employed persons, the Commission has no competence to adopt an act imposing on Member States obligations not provided for in the Treaty provisions on freedom to provide services, freedom of establishment and free movement of capital.

It is therefore necessary to annul Commission Communication 94/C 360/08 on an Internal Market for Pension Funds, which is not confined to clarifying the correct application of the Treaty provisions but is intended to have legal effects of its own, distinct from those already provided for by those provisions.
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1 Approximation of laws - Motor vehicles - Procedure for Community type-approval - Directive 70/156 - Right of the Member States to refuse to register vehicles with a valid Community type-approval certificate - Conditions - National rules subjecting the registration of motor vehicles to the production of a national certificate declaring that they comply with national exhaust emission rules - Not permissible

(Council Directive 70/156, Art. 7(1) and (3))

2 Community law - Interpretation - Acts of the institutions - Declaration recorded in minutes - Whether to be taken into consideration - Not permissible where no reference is made to the declaration in the act itself

Summary

3 Directive 70/156 on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to the type-approval of motor vehicles and their trailers, as amended by Directive 92/53, must be interpreted as precluding national legislation under which motor vehicles covered by a valid Community type-approval certificate cannot be registered unless a national certificate is produced attesting to their conformity with national requirements concerning exhaust emissions.

It is clear from Article 7(1) and (3) of the directive that a Member State may refuse to register a vehicle with a valid Community type-approval certificate only if it finds that the vehicle is a serious risk to road safety. Refusal to register under the national rules on the basis of considerations of environmental protection does not satisfy the conditions governing the derogation provided for by that provision.

4 A declaration recorded in minutes is of limited value, since it cannot be used for the purposes of interpreting a provision of Community law where no reference is made to the content of the declaration in the wording of the provision in question and the declaration therefore has no legal significance.
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1 Social policy - Approximation of laws - Protection of employees in the event of the insolvency of their employer - Directive 80/987 - Determination of outstanding claims which are subject to the guarantee - Onset of the employer's insolvency - Definition

(Council Directive 80/987, Arts 3(2) and 4(2))

2 Community law - Rights conferred on individuals - Breach, by a Member State, of the obligation to transpose a directive - Obligation to make good loss or damage caused to individuals - Scope of reparation - Retroactive and proper application in full of the measures implementing the directive - Sufficient reparation - Conditions

(Council Directive 80/987)

Summary

3 The term `onset of the employer's insolvency', which, according to Articles 3(2) and 4(2) of Directive 80/987, determines the outstanding claims which are subject to the guarantee provided for by the directive, must be interpreted as designating the date of the request that proceedings to satisfy collectively the claims of creditors be opened, since the guarantee cannot be provided prior to a decision to open such proceedings or to a finding that the business has been definitively closed down where the assets are insufficient. That interpretation takes into account both the social purpose of the directive and the need to settle precisely the reference periods to which it attaches legal effects.

If the onset of the employer's insolvency were subject to fulfilment of the conditions governing the `state of insolvency' set out in Article 2(1) of the Directive, and in particular were dependent on the date of the decision to open proceedings to satisfy collectively the claims of creditors, which may be given long after the request to open the proceedings, payment of unpaid remuneration might, given the temporal limits referred to in Article 4(2), never be guaranteed by the directive, for reasons wholly unconnected with the conduct of the employees.

4 Retroactive application in full of the measures implementing Directive 80/987, including a limitation of the guarantee institution's liability, enables the harmful consequences of the belated transposition of that directive to be remedied, provided that it has been properly transposed. However, it is for the national court to ensure that reparation of the loss or damage sustained by the beneficiaries is adequate. Retroactive and proper application in full of the measures implementing the Directive will suffice for that purpose unless the beneficiaries establish the existence of complementary loss sustained on account of the fact that they were unable to benefit at the appropriate time from the financial advantages guaranteed by the Directive with the result that such loss must also be made good.
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Common Customs Tariff - Tariff headings - Nightdress within the meaning of heading 60.04 of the Common Customs Tariff - Concept - Under garments intended to be worn exclusively or essentially in bed - Included

Summary

Subheading 60.04 B IV b 2 bb of the Common Customs Tariff, in the version resulting from Regulation No 3400/84 amending Regulation No 950/68 on the Common Customs Tariff, must be construed as covering under garments which, by reason of their objective characteristics, are intended to be worn exclusively or essentially in bed. It is for the national court to determine, in the light of the cut of the garments, their composition and presentation, and developments in fashion within the Member State concerned, whether those garments do have such objective characteristics or whether, on the contrary, they may be worn equally in bed and elsewhere.
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Tax provisions - Harmonization of laws - Turnover taxes - Common system of value added tax - Services - Determination of relevant place for tax purposes - `Fixed establishment' within the meaning of the Sixth Directive - Leasing company supplying passenger cars to customers established in another Member State

(Council Directive 77/388, Art. 9(1))

Summary

An establishment of a company in a Member State other than its main place of business cannot be deemed to be the place where it supplies its services within the meaning of Article 9(1) of Sixth Directive 77/388 on the harmonization of the laws of the Member States relating to turnover taxes unless that establishment has a sufficient degree of permanence and a structure adequate, in terms of human and technical resources, to supply the services in question on an independent basis.

Consequently, a leasing company established in one Member State does not supply services from a fixed establishment in another Member State if it makes passenger cars available in the second State under leasing agreements to customers established there, if its customers have entered into contact with it through self-employed intermediaries established in the second State, if they have chosen their cars from dealers established in the second State, if the leasing company has acquired the cars in the second State, in which they are registered, and has made them available to its customers under leasing agreements drawn up and signed at its main place of business, and if the customers bear maintenance costs and pay road tax in the second State, but the leasing company does not have an office or any premises on which to store the cars there.
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Agriculture - Common agricultural policy - Support system for producers of certain arable crops - Establishment of production regions by the Member States - Obligation to set out the criteria used in the national implementing provisions - None - Production region corresponding to a regional base area - Whether permissible

(Council Regulation No 1765/92, Arts 2(2), second subpara., and 3(1), first subpara.)

Summary

The first subparagraph of Article 3(1) of Regulation No 1765/92 establishing a support system for producers of certain arable crops does not require the Member States, when drawing up the regionalization plan referred to in that provision, to indicate the criteria used in the provisions implementing that regulation in establishing production regions.

That provision must be interpreted as meaning that a Member State which, under the third sentence of the second subparagraph of Article 2(2) of that regulation, has not designated its whole territory as a regional base area but merely different parts of it, is entitled to establish the whole territory of a specific regional base area as a production region, and that the specific characteristics that influence yields do not require regional base areas to be further subdivided into different production regions.
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Agriculture - Common organization of the markets - Milk and milk products - Additional levy on milk - Allocation of reference quantities exempt from the levy - Producers having suspended deliveries under the system of premiums for non-marketing or conversion - Grant of a special reference quantity - Transfer of part of a mixed holding - Apportionment of the special reference quantity in proportion to the part of the holding given over to milk production at the time when the non-marketing undertaking was entered into

(Council Regulations No 1078/77 and No 2055/93, Arts 1(2) and 2)

Summary

Articles 1(2) and 2 of Regulation No 2055/93, which introduced, under the additional milk levy system, rules for calculating the special reference quantity where part of a holding is transferred, must be interpreted as meaning that, where part of a mixed holding is transferred, the reference quantity must be apportioned between the transferor and transferee, or allocated to the transferee, in proportion to the part of the holding directly or indirectly given over to dairy production at the time when the non-marketing undertaking was entered into pursuant to Regulation No 1078/77, and not in proportion to the total area of the holding.
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Social policy - Men and women - Access to employment and working conditions - Equal treatment - National rules depriving a woman of the right to an assessment of her performance owing to her absence from the undertaking whilst on maternity leave - Not permissible

(Council Directive 76/207, Arts 2(3) and 5(1))

Summary

Articles 2(3) and 5(1) of Directive 76/207 on the implementation of the principle of equal treatment for men and women as regards access to employment, vocational training and promotion, and working conditions preclude national rules which deprive a woman of the right to an assessment of her performance and, consequently, to the possibility of qualifying for promotion because she was absent from the undertaking on account of maternity leave.
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1 European Community - Language regime - Document sent by the Commission to a Member State in a language other than that of the Member State - Not permissible

(Council Regulation No 1, Art. 3.)

2 Approximation of laws - Construction products - Directive 89/106 - Commission Decision defining the procedures for attesting the conformity of construction products - Consultation of the Standing Committee on Construction - Obligation for the Commission to send the draft decision both to the offices of the Permanent Representatives of the Member States and to their representatives on the committee within the time-limit laid down in the committee's rules of procedure - Failure to comply - Infringement of an essential procedural requirement - Nullity of the Commission Decision

(Council Directive 89/106, Art. 20(2); Rules of Procedure of the Standing Committee on Construction; Art. 2(6))

Summary

3 The sending by the Commission to the representatives of a Member State of a document drafted in a language other than the language of that Member State does not constitute compliance with Article 3 of Council Regulation No 1 determining the languages to be used by the European Economic Community.

4 The draft provisions referred to in Article 20(2) of Directive 89/106 on the approximation of laws, regulations and administrative provisions of the Member States relating to construction products, to be voted on by the Standing Committee on Construction, are to be sent, in accordance with Article 2(6) of that committee's rules of procedure, to the offices of the Permanent Representatives of the Member States as well as to their representatives on the Committee not later than 20 days before the meeting is due to take place, without there being any indication that such period of notice can be shortened. That requirement for the document to be sent separately to the offices of the Permanent Representatives of the Member States and to their representatives on the Committee, taken together with the fact that there is no possibility of shortening the period of notice, is a sufficient indication of the intention to ensure that Member States should have the time necessary to study these documents, which may be particularly complex and may require considerable contact and discussion between different administrative authorities, or consultation of experts in various fields or of professional organisations.

Consequently, the adoption of the opinion of the Standing Committee on Construction, without regard to the obligation to send the draft document to its two separate addressees within the time-limit laid down and without the vote having been postponed despite the request made by a Member State, is vitiated by infringement of essential procedural requirements, with the result that the Commission Decision taken in accordance with the opinion is void.
JUDGMENT OF THE COURT (Fifth Chamber)

28 March 1996

((Failure of a Member State to fulfil its obligations – Non-transposition of Directive 91/271/EEC – Urban waste water treatment))

In Case C-161/95,

applicant,

v

defendant,

THE COURT (Fifth Chamber),,

having regard to the report of the Judge-Rapporteur,

after hearing the Opinion of the Advocate General at the sitting on 1 February 1996,
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1 Appeals - Pleas in law - Only pleas in law supported by legal argument admissible

(EC Treaty, Art. 168a; EC Statute of the Court of Justice, Art. 51; Rules of Procedure of the Court of Justice, Art. 112(1)(c))

2 Appeals - Pleas in law - Inadequate reasoning - Principle of sound management - Sickness insurance - Sickness expenses - Supplementary sickness insurance scheme for officials posted outside the Community - Scope - Appeal dismissed

(Staff Regulations, Art. 72 and Annex X, Art. 24)

Summary

3 Pursuant to Article 168a of the Treaty and Article 51 of the Statute of the Court of Justice an appeal may be based only on pleas in law relating to an infringement of rules of law, to the exclusion of any issue challenging the facts as established by the Court of First Instance, and must, in accordance with Article 112(1)(c) of the Rules of Procedure of the Court of Justice, specify the pleas in law and the legal arguments relied upon in support of it. It follows from those provisions that an appeal must indicate precisely which elements of the contested judgment it challenges, and also the legal arguments which specifically support the appeal.

4 There is no inadequate or contradictory reasoning where a judgment of the Court of First Instance finds (i) that the application of the scheme provided for in Article 24 of Annex X to the Staff Regulations (which establishes a supplementary insurance scheme for officials posted outside the Community, their spouses, their children and other persons dependent on them to cover the difference between costs actually incurred and sickness benefits available under Article 72) is justified in the light of the principle of sound management when the costs incurred in a non-member country are no higher than they would be in the Community or when the costs have been incurred during a temporary stay in the Community, and (ii) that Article 24 is otiose unless and in so far as the specific disadvantages which led to its adoption exist.

The legislature made a legitimate choice in opting for a scheme not unduly complex and therefore easily manageable, on the ground that it would have been disproportionate to seek to establish for each country the actual costs of medical services or the level of health risks in view of the work that would require, the small number of countries in which the costs or health risks are no greater than in the Community, the few officials serving in those countries and the difficulty of comparing medical practice from one country to another.

Conversely, where the absence of the specific disadvantages connected with a posting outside the Community is the rule rather than the exception, that is to say, where residence in the Community is permanent, there is no reason to apply Article 24 of Annex X.
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1 Competition - Agreements, decisions and concerted practices - Notification - Old agreements - Provisional validity - Expiry - Conditions - Taking of position by the Commission

(EC Treaty, Art. 85; Regulation No 17 of the Council, Art. 5(1))

2 Competition - Agreements, decisions and concerted practices - Notification - Old agreements - Provisional validity - Scope - Amendments reinforcing or extending the restrictive effects of the agreement - Excluded

(EC Treaty, Art. 85; Regulation No 17 of the Council, Art. 5(1))

Summary

3 The provisional validity of an agreement concluded before the entry into force of Regulation No 17 and notified to the Commission before 1 November 1962 expires only when the Commission has taken either a positive or a negative decision on that agreement.

Such provisional validity is justified by the protection, on the one hand, of legal certainty in contractual matters and, on the other hand, by the interests of the parties to the duly notified old agreement. The fact that a fairly lengthy period of time has elapsed since notification of an old agreement without the Commission having taken any position cannot have the effect of bringing the provisional validity of that agreement to an end.

4 A duly notified agreement concluded before the entry into force of Regulation No 17 enjoys provisional validity only if the terms of the agreement remain unchanged or, in the event of amendments, if these do not have the effect of reinforcing or extending its restrictive effects.

Unlike amendments mitigating the restrictive effect of agreements, any reinforcement or extension, no matter how minimal, of the restrictions and, a fortiori, any introduction of new restrictions must, in principle, be regarded as having brought to an end the old agreement upon which provisional validity was conferred and as introducing a new agreement which does not enjoy provisional validity.

However, if the amendment of an old agreement were to have the effect of introducing a new restriction severable from the agreement and not affecting its essential structure and content, the provisional validity of the old agreement, as it stood prior to amendment, would not be affected; only the new restriction would not be covered by the provisional validity.
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Tax provisions - Harmonization of laws - Turnover taxes - Common system of value added tax - Prohibition of the levying of other national charges which can be characterized as turnover taxes - Purpose - Meaning of `turnover taxes' - Scope - Stamp duty levied on only a portion of economic transactions - Not included

(Council Directive 77/388, Art. 33)

Summary

Since the purpose of Article 33 of Sixth Directive 77/388 on the harmonization of the laws of the Member States relating to turnover taxes is to prevent the functioning of the common system of value added tax from being jeopardized by fiscal measures of a Member State levied on the movement of goods and services and charged on commercial transactions in a way comparable to value added tax, that provision does not preclude the maintenance of a national charge which, having the characteristics of a stamp duty levied on works contracts and contracts for the supply of materials or any kind of consumer article, to the exclusion of a large portion of economic transactions in the Member State concerned, is not a general tax since it is not intended to apply to all economic transactions in the Member State concerned and does not therefore have one of the essential characteristics of value added tax.
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Agriculture - Common agricultural policy - Structural reform - Modernization of farms - System of aids introduced by Directive 72/159 - Register intended to determine eligibility for aid - Refusal to register certain legal persons by reason of the legal form they have assumed - Not permissible

(Council Regulation No 797/85; Council Directive 72/159)

Summary

Directive 72/159 on the modernization of farms and Regulation No 797/85 on improving the efficiency of agricultural structures are to be interpreted as meaning that Member States which introduce a register intended to determine eligibility under the system of aids established by Directive 72/159 are not permitted to refuse to register certain legal persons solely by reason of the legal form they have assumed or to introduce a special system of identification by creating a specific register intended for natural persons alone.