ddrg/super_eurlex huggingface dataset:
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1. Actions for annulment of measures ° Natural or legal persons ° Measures of direct and individual concern to them ° Letter of the Commission informing a non-member country, in connection with an agreement on fisheries, of a decision to impose a penalty on a vessel flying that country' s flag ° Action by the owner of the vessel ° Admissibility

(EEC Treaty, Art. 173, second para.; Council Regulation No 3929/90, Art. 3(7) and (8))

2. Community law ° Principles ° Right to be heard ° Penalty imposed on the owner of a vessel of a non-member country in connection with an agreement on fisheries ° Failure by the Commission to place that party in a position where he could effectively submit observations ° Unlawful

Summary

1. A letter of the Commission addressed to the Swedish authorities to inform them of a penalty imposed, under the power and discretion conferred on it by Article 3(7) and (8) of Regulation No 3929/90, on a Swedish fishing vessel which for a certain period will no longer be eligible for a licence under the Agreement on Fisheries between the Community and Sweden constitutes a decision against which an action for annulment can be brought by the owner of the vessel in question.

2. Observance of the right to be heard is, in all proceedings initiated against a person which are liable to culminate in a measure adversely affecting that person, a fundamental principle of Community law which must be guaranteed even in the absence of any rules governing the procedure in question. That principle requires that any person on whom a penalty may be imposed must be placed in a position in which he can effectively make known his view of the matters on the basis of which the Commission imposes the penalty. It follows that the decision of the Commission contained in a letter informing the Swedish authorities of a penalty imposed on a Swedish vessel under the Agreement on Fisheries between the Community and Sweden must be annulled if the owner of the vessel has not been given any opportunity to submit observations before the adoption of the decision.
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Free movement of goods ° Quantitative restrictions ° Measures having equivalent effect ° Concept ° Obstacles resulting from national provisions regulating selling arrangements in a non-discriminatory manner ° Article 30 of the Treaty not applicable ° Rules on business opening hours ° Treaty provisions concerning competition ° Not applicable

(EEC Treaty, Arts 3(f), 5, 30, 85 and 86)

Summary

The application to products from other Member States of national provisions restricting or prohibiting certain selling arrangements is not such as to hinder, directly or indirectly, actually or potentially, trade between Member States, provided that those provisions apply to all relevant traders operating within the national territory and provided that they affect in the same manner, in law and in fact, the marketing of domestic products and of those from other Member States. Where those conditions are fulfilled, the application of such rules to the sale of products from another Member State meeting the requirements laid down by that State is not by nature such as to prevent their access to the market or to impede access any more than it impedes the access of domestic products. Those rules therefore fall outside the scope of Article 30.

It follows that Article 30 of the Treaty is to be interpreted as not applying to national rules on the closure of shops which apply to all traders operating within the national territory and which affect in the same manner, in law and in fact, the marketing of domestic products and of products from other Member States.

Moreover, Articles 85 and 86, in conjunction with Articles 3(f) and 5, of the Treaty do not apply to such rules.
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State aid ° Prohibition ° Derogations ° Aid to shipbuilding ° Directive 90/684 ° Derogation criteria ° Aid granted as development assistance to a developing country ° Incompatibility with the common market of aid not pursuing a development objective ° Role of the Commission ° Determination as to whether the development objective is genuine

(EEC Treaty, Art. 92(3); Council Directive 90/684, Art. 4(7))

Summary

Article 4(7) of Directive 90/684 on aid to shipbuilding, adopted pursuant to Article 92(3)(d) of the Treaty, which provides that such aid, when granted as development assistance to a developing country, may, without having to comply with the maximum ceiling defined in Article 4(1) to (3), be deemed compatible with the common market if it complies with the terms of the OECD Agreement on Export Credit for Ships, must be understood as meaning that the Commission has, in respect of aid which a Member State claims to be covered by that provision, a discretion relating in particular to the development content of the proposed aid. The purpose of this is to prevent Member States, under the guise of development assistance, from in fact granting aid to their national shipbuilding industry by releasing themselves from the constraints arising under Community law. In the exercise of that discretion, the Commission was correct to refuse to treat as development assistance aid designed to reduce the price of a vessel to be purchased by an undertaking in a developing country which was financially capable of buying new ships on the normal market and engaged in operations not directly linked to the import or export trade of the country in question.
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Agriculture ° Common organization of the markets ° Discrimination between producers or consumers ° Additional levy on milk ° Allocation of reference quantities exempt from the levy ° Refusal by a Member State to take account of a quantity produced in another Member State by a producer in addition to his production on national territory ° Different treatment from that applied to a producer taking over a second holding on national territory ° Difference according to the place of production objectively justified in the light of the determination by Member State of the overall quantities exempt from the levy

(EEC Treaty, second subparagraph of Art. 40(3))

Summary

The refusal by a Member State to take account, in fixing the reference quantities exempt from the additional levy on milk, of the production from a holding situated in another Member State, taken over and worked by one of its producers in addition to a holding situated within his own State is not contrary to the principle of equal treatment and the second subparagraph of Article 40(3) of the EEC Treaty, if the only reason for that refusal is the fact that the holding whose production is not taken into account is situated in another Member State.

Although the prohibition of discrimination must be complied with by Member States when implementing the measures adopted in the context of a common organization of the markets, and a difference of treatment between producers is involved in so far as the taking over of a second holding situated in the same Member State would have permitted the grant of a reference quantity taking account of that holding, that difference is objectively justified by the purpose of the system of reference quantities, which is to curtail Community milk production, a result the achievement of which would be jeopardized if the Member States, in determining the individual reference quantities, were required to take account of the quantities produced in other Member States when their task is to ensure that the overall quantity allocated to them is not exceeded.
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1. Social security for migrant workers ° Community rules ° Substantive scope ° National legislation coordinating the various branches of social security in a Member State ° Included

(Council Regulation No 1408/71)

2. Social security for migrant workers ° Community rules ° Substantive scope ° Joint and several liability of a main contractor to pay contributions not paid by a defaulting subcontractor ° Excluded

(EC Treaty, Art. 51; Council Regulation No 1408/71)

Summary

1. A national law which aims to coordinate the various branches of social security in a Member State falls within the substantive scope of Regulation No 1408/71, whether or not it appears in the declaration made by such Member State pursuant to Article 5 of that regulation.

2. National provisions which make a main contractor jointly and severally liable, regardless of whether there has been fraud on his part, for the payment of contributions and unpaid advance payments on account of contributions due from a defaulting subcontractor in relation to the activities of workers used by the latter in the context of works commissioned by the main contractor are not capable of falling within the substantive scope of Regulation No 1408/71.

Even if such provisions appear in a statute falling within the area to which the regulation applies, they do not have a direct and sufficiently relevant link therewith, since they impose upon the main contractor a liability which is based not upon the existence of an employer-employee relationship between him and the workers in respect of whom the contributions are payable but upon the fact that the main contractor used the services of a subcontractor who did not comply with his obligations as an employer to pay social security contributions in respect of his own employees, or they constitute an obligation to compensate a social security organization for lost revenue.
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Member States ° Obligations ° Implementation of directives ° Failure to fulfil obligations not contested

(EEC Treaty, Art. 169)
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1. Officials ° Conditions of employment ° Duty to be at all times at the disposal of their institution ° Meaning ° Obligation for those concerned to communicate their private address when required by the administration ° Failure to comply ° Disciplinary measure

(Staff Regulations, Art. 55, first para.)

2. Privileges and immunities of the European Communities ° Officials and other servants of the Communities ° Exemption from formalities for the registration of aliens ° Communication by the institutions of officials' private addresses to the national authorities of the host country

(Protocol on the Privileges and Immunities of the European Communities, Arts 12(b) and 16; Staff Regulations, Art. 23, second para.)

Summary

1. Since the first paragraph of Article 55 of the Staff Regulations, which provides that officials in active employment are to be at all times at the disposal of their institution, requires no implementing measure and may be invoked directly against officials, it supposes that the institution in question has available to it all the information necessary to enable it to contact its officials at their home. Therefore, an official' s refusal to communicate her private address to her institution constitutes a failure to comply with her obligations under that provision, capable of justifying a disciplinary measure.

With regard to information concerning officials of the institutions, the fact that the institution requested that information pursuant to an agreement concluded between the host country and the Community institutions is in any case irrelevant, since the duty of officials to communicate their private addresses stems directly from the Regulations.

2. Article 12(b) of the Protocol on the Privileges and Immunities of the European Communities, in conjunction with Article 16, does not allow officials to refuse to communicate their private address to their institution, where the latter refuses to guarantee that the address will not be recorded in the host country' s population registers. While Article 12 provides that Community officials are not to be subject to immigration restrictions or to formalities for the registration of aliens, it is apparent from the wording of Article 16 of the Protocol, according to which the names, grades and addresses of officials are to be communicated periodically to the Governments of the Member States, that the institution is not only entitled, but also bound, to communicate private addresses to the authorities in the host country.

In any case, officials may in no circumstances invoke an alleged breach of the Protocol in order to escape their obligation under the Staff Regulations to give their private address to the institution to which they belong. If they believe that the Protocol has been breached, they have only to make use of the procedure provided for by the second paragraph of Article 23 of the Regulations, which provides that when privileges and immunities enjoyed by officials are in dispute, the official concerned shall immediately inform the appointing authority.
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Tax provisions - Harmonization of laws - Turnover tax - Common system of value added tax - Supply of services for consideration - Definition - Musical performance on the public highway giving rise to payments on a voluntary basis of money in an unquantified amount - Excluded

(Council Directive 77/388/EEC, Art. 2(1))

Summary

A supply of services is effected "for consideration" within the meaning of Article 2(1) of the Sixth Council Directive (77/388) on the harmonization of the laws of the Member States relating to turnover taxes, and hence is taxable, only if there is a legal relationship between the provider of the service and the recipient pursuant to which there is reciprocal performance, the remuneration received by the provider of the service constituting the value actually given in return for the service supplied to the recipient.

Those conditions are not fulfilled in the case of an activity consisting in playing music on the public highway, for which no remuneration is stipulated, even if the musician solicits money and receives sums, in the form of donations, whose amount is however neither quantified nor quantifiable.
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1. Preliminary rulings ° Jurisdiction of the Court ° Limits ° Jurisdiction of the national court ° Determination and assessment of the facts of the dispute ° Need for a preliminary ruling and relevance of the questions raised ° Assessment by the national court

(EEC Treaty, Art. 177)

2. Common commercial policy ° Protection against dumping ° Regulation imposing an anti-dumping duty ° Products identified by reference to an outdated version of the Combined Nomenclature ° Corrigendum substituting references ° Scope of regulation unchanged ° Validity

(Commission Regulation No 165/90)

Summary

1. Under Article 177 of the Treaty, which is based on a clear separation of functions between the national courts and the Court of Justice, the latter is empowered to rule only on the interpretation or validity of Community provisions on the basis of the facts which the national court puts before it. It is not for the Court of Justice, but for the national court, to ascertain the facts which have given rise to the dispute and to establish the consequences which they have for the judgment which it is required to deliver. It is, moreover, solely for the national court before which the dispute has been brought, and which must assume responsibility for the subsequent judicial decision, to determine in the light of the particular circumstances of each case both the need for a preliminary ruling in order to enable it to deliver judgment and the relevance of the questions which it submits to the Court.

2. If the products in question remain the same, the fact that a regulation imposing anti-dumping duties has been made the subject of a corrigendum since its publication does not affect the validity of the final version if the sole purpose of the corrigendum is to replace identification of the products by reference to a version of the Combined Nomenclature no longer in force with references to codes under that nomenclature as since amended. Such a corrigendum merely corrects a clerical error without altering the scope of the regulation.
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Social security for migrant workers ° Invalidity insurance ° Calculation of benefits ° Legislation of a Member State fixing the amount of benefit on the basis of the remuneration last received ° Worker employed in another Member State at the time when invalidity occurred ° Taking into account, for calculation of the theoretical amount, of the remuneration last received in the State of employment

(Regulation No 1408/71 of the Council, Art. 46(2)(a))

Summary

In view of the fact that migrant workers must not lose their right to social security benefits or have the amount of those benefits reduced because they have exercised the right to freedom of movement conferred on them by the Treaty, Article 46(2)(a) of Regulation No 1408/71, as codified by Regulation No 2001/83, must be interpreted as meaning that where under the applicable legislation of a Member State the amount of the invalidity benefit depends on the remuneration received by the worker at the time when invalidity occurred, and the worker in question was not at that time subject to the social security system of that State because he was working in another Member State, the competent institution must calculate the theoretical amount of benefit on the basis of the remuneration last received by the worker in the other Member State.
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Agriculture ° Common organization of the markets ° Oils and fats ° Olive oil ° Production aid ° Payment to beneficiaries through an association of producer organizations ° National legislation awarding to the national intervention agency any interest accruing on the sums allocated until actual payment of those sums to the beneficiaries ° Whether permissible

(Council Regulations No 2959/82, Art. 6(2), and No 2261/84, Art. 11(5))

Summary

The Community provisions on the financing of the common agricultural policy, and in particular Regulations No 2959/82 and No 2261/84 on the granting of aid for the production of olive oil and of aid to producer organizations, do not prevent national legislation from awarding to the national intervention agency bank interest which, until their actual payment to the beneficiaries, may accrue on the sums allocated in the accounts of associations of producer organizations.

Since the aforesaid regulations, which confer on Member States a general power to adopt rules, have not expressly settled the question of the allocation of any interest accruing, during the procedure for granting the aid, on the sums intended for payment thereof, it is for national law to determine the legal arrangements applicable to such interest.
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Environment ° Containers of liquids for human consumption ° Directive 85/339 ° Programmes for the reduction of containers in household waste ° Obligations of the Member States ° Scope

(Council Directive 85/339/EEC, Arts 3 and 4)

Summary

Directive 85/339 on containers of liquids for human consumption leaves it to the Member States according to their own priorities and at their own pace, to set concrete objectives for reducing the tonnage and/or volume of containers in household waste to be finally disposed of. Article 3, however, requires them first to draw up programmes before 1 January 1987 leading to the attainment of those objectives and to revise and update them at least every four years and, secondly, to notify the Commission in good time, and before the end of 1986, of their undertaking to attain those objectives and of the measures, expressed in quantitative terms, which they intend to adopt or carry out, where appropriate in conjunction with business and industrial circles in the sectors concerned. Those specific figures and timetables are essential if the Commission is to assess whether the measures envisaged in pursuance of Article 4 are sufficient.
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1. Free movement of goods ° Customs duties ° Charges having an equivalent effect ° Definition ° Motor vehicle tax applicable to domestic and imported vehicles alike ° Excluded ° Internal taxation

(EEC Treaty, Arts 9, 12 and 95)

2. Tax provisions ° Internal taxation ° Registration tax for second-hand vehicles ° Rules resulting in higher rate for imported vehicles than for vehicles sold on the domestic market ° Incompatible with Article 95 of the Treaty

(EEC Treaty, Art. 95)

Summary

1. A motor vehicle tax applied without distinction to vehicles assembled or manufactured in the Member State where it is levied and to both new and used imported vehicles is not a customs duty or a charge having an effect equivalent thereto within the meaning of Articles 9 and 12 of the Treaty, since it forms part of a general system of internal charges imposed on categories of products in accordance with an objective criterion. Such taxes constitute, on the contrary, internal taxation within the meaning of Article 95 of the Treaty.

2. It is incompatible with Article 95 of the Treaty for a Member State to levy on second-hand cars from other Member States a tax which, calculated without taking the vehicle' s actual depreciation into account, exceeds the residual tax incorporated in the value of similar second-hand motor vehicles already registered in the national territory, which, having been taxed at the time of such registration, are not taxed when sold second-hand.
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Agriculture ° Common organization of the markets ° System of securities ° Force majeure ° Concept ° Official announcements of an international agreement concerning the regime for the import of maize into Spain ° Fall in the price of maize in that State ° Absence of force majeure vis-à-vis traders who had undertaken commitments pursuant to the Community regulations before the conclusion of the negotiations

(Council Regulations Nos 2913/86 and 1799/87; Commission Regulations No 2220/85, Art. 22, and No 3593/86)

Summary

Neither the measures adopted in Regulation No 1799/87 on special arrangements for imports of maize and sorghum into Spain from 1987 to 1990, nor the official announcements, in the early months of 1987, of the conclusion of the agreement between the European Economic Community and the United States of America, nor the Council Decision approving the Agreement between the European Economic Community and the United States of America for the conclusion of negotiations under GATT Article XXIV.6 constitutes a case of force majeure within the meaning of Article 22 of Regulation No 2220/85 laying down common detailed rules for the application of the system of securities for agricultural products.

Even though the concept of force majeure adopted by the agricultural regulations takes into account the particular nature of the public-law relationships between traders and the national administration, as well as the objectives of those regulations, so that it is not limited to absolute impossibility but must be understood in the sense of abnormal and unforeseeable circumstances, outside the control of the trader concerned, the consequences of which, in spite of the exercise of all due care, could not have been avoided except at the cost of excessive sacrifice, the events in question were by no means abnormal and unforeseeable for the traders who had undertaken, by providing a security, to import into Spain maize subsidized in accordance with the conditions laid down by Regulation No 3593/86. On the contrary, in the light of the information available at the time any reasonably well-informed trader could have realized that the question of imports of maize into Spain was one of the major issues in the negotiations with the United States of America and that an agreement was being actively sought in order to avoid a trade dispute.

Furthermore, the fall in maize prices which occurred at the beginning of 1987 on the Spanish market, which was not a sudden and unforeseeable reaction to the announcement of the agreement, must be regarded as an ordinary commercial risk and not as having made it absolutely impossible to put the subsidized maize into free circulation in Spain.