ddrg/super_eurlex huggingface dataset:
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1 Convention on Jurisdiction and the Enforcement of Judgments - Protocol on the interpretation of the Convention by the Court of Justice - Preliminary rulings - Jurisdiction of the Court - Limits

(Convention of 27 September 1968; Protocol of 3 June 1971)

2 Convention on Jurisdiction and the Enforcement of Judgments - Rules on jurisdiction - Autonomous interpretation - Special jurisdiction - Jurisdiction in matters relating to maintenance - Maintenance creditor - Definition

(Convention of 27 September 1968, Art. 5(2))

Summary

3 In the light of the division of responsibilities in the preliminary ruling procedure laid down by the Protocol of 3 June 1971 on the interpretation by the Court of Justice of the Convention of 27 September 1968 on Jurisdiction and the Enforcement of Judgments in Civil and Commercial Matters, it is solely for the national court before which the dispute has been brought, and which must assume the 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.

4 The terms of the Convention must, in principle, be interpreted autonomously. Such autonomous interpretation is alone capable of ensuring uniform application of the Convention, the objectives of which include unification of the rules on jurisdiction of the Contracting States, so as to avoid as far as possible multiplication of the bases of jurisdiction in relation to one and the same legal relationship, and reinforcement of the legal protection available to persons established in the Community by allowing both the plaintiff easily to identify the court before which he may bring an action and the defendant reasonably to foresee the court before which he may be sued.

Those considerations also apply to the term `maintenance creditor' in the first limb of Article 5(2) of the Convention, which must be interpreted as covering any person applying for maintenance, including a person bringing a maintenance action for the first time, without any distinction being drawn between those already recognized and those not yet recognized as entitled to maintenance.
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1 Community law - Interpretation - Acts of the institutions - Statement of reasons - Account to be taken

2 State aid - Prohibition - Derogations - Discretion of the Commission - Commission decision making authorization to pay aid dependent on prior repayment by the undertaking concerned of unlawful aid previously received - Condition laid down in order to prevent an accumulation of aid from adversely affecting trading conditions to an extent contrary to the common interest - Decision within the power of the Commission

(EC Treaty, Arts 92(3) and 93(2))

3 Appeals - Pleas in law - Mere repetition of the pleas in law and arguments submitted to the Court of First Instance - Inadmissibility - Appeal dismissed

(EC Statute of the Court of Justice, Arts 49 and 51; Rules of Procedure of the Court of Justice, Art. 112(1)(c))

Summary

4 The operative part of an act is indissociably linked to the statement of reasons for it, so that, when it has to be interpreted, account must be taken of the reasons which led to its adoption.

5 The first subparagraph of Article 93(2) of the Treaty makes the Commission responsible for implementing, subject to review by the Court, a special procedure involving the constant review and monitoring of aid which Member States intend to introduce. In particular, under Article 92(3) of the Treaty the Commission enjoys a wide discretion, and the exercise of that discretion involves assessments of an economic and social nature which must be made within a Community context. When the Commission examines the compatibility of a State aid with the common market, it must take all the relevant factors into account, including, where appropriate, the circumstances already considered in a prior decision and the obligations which that decision may have imposed on a Member State.

Accordingly, the Commission does not exceed the limits of the discretion which it enjoys where it adopts a decision authorizing aid which a Member State is proposing to grant to an undertaking, but suspends payment thereof until the undertaking has repaid previous unlawful aid on account of the cumulative effect of the aids in question.

6 Under Article 51 of the EC Statute of the Court of Justice and Article 112(1)(c) of the Rules of Procedure, an appeal must give a precise indication of the aspects of the judgment appealed against which are complained of, together with the legal arguments put forward in support of the claim that it should be set aside.

That requirement is not satisfied by pleas which merely repeat arguments already put to the Court of First Instance and rejected by it, without attempting to prove that it erred in law in its assessment of the facts. In practice, such pleas seek merely to have the facts re-examined, which falls outside the jurisdiction of the Court of Justice.
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Convention on Jurisdiction and the Enforcement of Judgments - Accession of new Contracting States - Spain - Portugal - Transitional provisions - Lis pendens - Proceedings involving the same cause of action and between the same parties in two different Contracting States - First proceedings brought before and second proceedings after the entry into force of the Accession Convention between the two States - Application of Article 21 of the Convention on Jurisdiction and the Enforcement of Judgments by the court second seised - Conditions

(Convention of 27 September 1968, Art. 21; 1989 Accession Convention, Art. 29)

Summary

Article 29(1) of the Convention of 26 May 1989 on the Accession of the Kingdom of Spain and the Portuguese Republic to the Convention on Jurisdiction and the Enforcement of Judgments in Civil and Commercial Matters must be interpreted as meaning that where proceedings involving the same cause of action and between the same parties are pending in two different Contracting States, the first proceedings having been brought before the date of entry into force of the Brussels Convention between those States and the second proceedings after that date, the court second seised must apply Article 21 of the latter Convention if the court first seised has assumed jurisdiction on the basis of a rule which accords with the provisions of Title II of that Convention or with the provisions of a convention which was in force between the two States concerned when the proceedings were instituted; if the court first seised has not yet ruled on whether it has jurisdiction, the court second seised must apply that article provisionally.

On the other hand, the latter court must not apply Article 21 of the Convention on Jurisdiction and the Enforcement of Judgments in Civil and Commercial Matters if the court first seised has assumed jurisdiction on the basis of a rule which does not accord with the provisions of Title II of that Convention or with the provisions of a convention which was in force between those two States when the proceedings were instituted.
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Social policy - Men and women - Access to employment and working conditions - Equal treatment - Derogations - Measures to promote equality of opportunity between men and women - Scope - National provision giving priority to the promotion of women over men where women have equal qualifications and are under-represented - Saving clause allowing an objective assessment of each individual case on the basis of criteria not discriminatory towards women - Whether permissible

(Council Directive 76/207, Art. 2(1) and (4))

Summary

A national rule which, in a case where there are fewer women than men at the level of the relevant post in a sector of the public service and both female and male candidates for the post are equally qualified in terms of their suitability, competence and professional performance, requires that priority be given to the promotion of female candidates unless reasons specific to an individual male candidate tilt the balance in his favour is not precluded by Article 2(1) and (4) 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, provided that:

- in each individual case the rule provides for male candidates who are equally as qualified as the female candidates a guarantee that the candidatures will be the subject of an objective assessment which will take account of all criteria specific to the candidates and will override the priority accorded to female candidates where one or more of those criteria tilts the balance in favour of the male candidate, and

- such criteria are not such as to discriminate against the female candidates.
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1 Appeals - Pleas in law - Incorrect assessment of the facts - Inadmissible - Review by the Court of Justice of assessment of evidence - Excluded unless the sense of evidence has been distorted

(EC Treaty, Art. 168a; EC Statute of the Court of Justice, Art. 51, first para.)

2 Competition - Agreements, decisions and restrictive practices - Commission decision to close the procedure - Legal nature - Subsequent re-opening of infringement procedure - Consideration of events pre-dating the decision to close the procedure - Conditions

(Council Regulation No 17))

3 Competition - Administrative procedure - Cessation of infringements - Commission's power - Prohibition of an undertaking from concluding, in the future, exclusive agreements - Excluded

(EC Treaty, Art. 85; Council Regulation No 17, Art. 3)

Summary

1 By virtue of Article 168a of the Treaty and the first paragraph of Article 51 of the Statute of the Court of Justice, an appeal may be based only on grounds relating to the infringement of rules of law, to the exclusion of any appraisal of the facts.

As regards matters of evidence, it is for the Court of First Instance alone to assess the value which should be attached to the evidence adduced before it, save where the sense of that evidence has been distorted.

2 Having regard to the legal nature of comfort letters, the sending of such a letter, in which the Commission has reserved the right to re-open the procedure in the event of there being any appreciable change affecting certain matters of law or of fact on which its assessment had been based, cannot entail the consequence that the Commission, when actually re-opening the procedure, would no longer be entitled to take account of a factual situation which existed before the comfort letter was sent but was brought to its notice only later, particularly in connection with a complaint lodged at a later stage.

3 Since Article 3 of Regulation No 17 is to be applied according to the nature of the infringement found, although the Commission may by decision require undertakings and associations of undertakings to bring to an end an infringement of Article 85 of the Treaty deriving from an exclusive purchasing agreement, it may not prohibit the conclusion of any such agreements in the future.
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Freedom to provide services - Television broadcasting - Directive 89/552 - Television broadcaster under the jurisdiction of a Member State - Determining criterion - Establishment - Broadcaster established in more than one Member State

(Council Directive 89/552, Art. 2(1))

Summary

Article 2(1) of Directive 89/552 on the coordination of certain provisions laid down by law, regulation or administrative action in Member States concerning the pursuit of television broadcasting activities is to be interpreted as meaning that a television broadcaster comes under the jurisdiction of the Member State in which it is established.

Although the directive contains no express definition of the phrase `broadcasters under [the] jurisdiction [of a Member State]', it follows from the wording of Article 2(1) that the concept of jurisdiction of a Member State has to be understood as necessarily covering jurisdiction ratione personae over television broadcasters, which can be based only on their connection to that State's legal system, which in substance overlaps with the concept of establishment as used in the first paragraph of Article 59 of the Treaty, the wording of which presupposes that the supplier and the recipient of a service are `established' in two different Member States.

Where a television broadcaster is established in more than one Member State, the Member State having jurisdiction over it is the Member State in which the broadcaster has the centre of its activities, in particular the place where decisions concerning programme policy are taken and where the programmes to be broadcast are finally put together.
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Free movement of goods - Trade with third countries - Outward processing relief arrangements - Total or partial relief from import duties on compensating products - Determination of value of temporary export goods - Factors to be taken into consideration - Processing costs - Determination by `reasonable means' - Concept - Scope

(Council Regulation No 2473/86, Art. 13(2), second para.)

Summary

The reasonable means of determining outward processing costs for the purposes of the second method set out in Article 13(2) of Regulation No 2473/86 on outward processing relief arrangements and the standard exchange system, implies the use of means appropriate to the circumstances of each case and can entail taking account of the transaction value of the temporary export goods, which comprises the purchase price and any uplifts, even if the rate of duty is higher for the unprocessed goods than for the compensating products. The possibility of tariff anomalies arising, and resulting in customs advantages for the traders concerned, is a risk inherent in the arrangements introduced by the regulation on outward processing, the primary aim of which is to prevent customs duties from being charged on goods exported from the European Community for processing in respect of which Article 1 permits total relief from import duties in certain circumstances.
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Own resources of the European Communities - Post-clearance recovery of import or export duties - Regulation No 1697/79 - Scope ratione temporis - Customs debt incurred prior to the entry into force of the regulation - Barred

(Council Regulation No 1697/79, Art. 2(1), second subpara.)

Summary

The second subparagraph of Article 2(1) of Regulation No 1697/79 on the post-clearance recovery of import duties or export duties which have not been required of the person liable for payment on goods entered for a customs procedure involving the obligation to pay such duties does not apply to duties not collected in respect of goods entered for a customs procedure where the obligation to pay those duties was incurred on a date prior to the entry into force of that regulation.
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1 Preliminary rulings - Reference to the Court - National court or tribunal within the meaning of Article 177 of the Treaty - Definition - `Consiglio di Stato' issuing an opinion in the context of an extraordinary petition

(EC Treaty, Art. 177)

2 Freedom of movement for persons - Freedom of establishment - Freedom to provide services - Doctors - Recognition of diplomas and evidence of formal qualifications - Directive 93/16 - Practitioners of general medicine - Member States' obligation to make the practice of general medicine under their national social security system conditional on possession of a specific diploma - Limit - Acquired rights of doctors not holding a specific diploma but who exercised their right of establishment before 1 January 1995

(Council Directives 75/362 and 93/16, Art. 36(2))

Summary

3 In order to determine whether a body making a reference to the Court of Justice is a court or tribunal within the meaning of Article 177 of the Treaty, account must be taken of a number of factors, such as whether the body is established by law, whether it is permanent, whether its jurisdiction is compulsory, whether procedure before it is inter partes, whether it applies rules of law and whether it is independent. When it issues an opinion in the context of an extraordinary petition, the `Consiglio di Stato' constitutes a court or tribunal within the meaning of Article 177 of the Treaty.

4 Article 36(2) of Directive 93/16 to facilitate the free movement of doctors and the mutual recognition of their diplomas, certificates and other evidence of formal qualifications - which replaced Article 7(2) of Directive 86/457 on specific training in general medical practice - is to be interpreted as meaning that a Member State may determine the acquired rights of practitioners of general medicine as regards situations prior to 1 January 1995, provided only that it recognizes the right of doctors established in practice there, under Directive 75/362 concerning the mutual recognition of diplomas, certificates and other evidence of formal qualifications in medicine, including measures to facilitate the effective exercise of the right of establishment and freedom to provide services, before 1 January 1995 to practice general medicine under its national social security scheme, even if they have no specific training in general medical practice and have not established a service relationship with that State's social security scheme.
Case C-284/96

Didier Tabouillot

v

Directeur des Services Fiscaux de Meurthe-et-Moselle

Reference for a preliminary ruling from the Tribunal de Grande Instance, Briey

‛Article 95 of the Treaty — Differential tax on motor vehicles’

Opinion of Advocate General Jacobs delivered on 17 July 1997 I-7472

Judgment of the Court (Fifth Chamber), 18 December 1997 I-7484

Summary of the Judgment

Tax provisions — Internal taxation — Tax charged on vehicles imported directly from nonmember countries — Article 95 of the Treaty not applicable

(EC Treaty, Art. 95)

Since Article 95 of the Treaty applies only to goods imported from other Member States and, where appropriate, to goods originating in nonmember countries which are in free circulation in the Member States, a situation such as that arising from the importation into a Member State of a vehicle which has come directly from a nonmember country does not fall within the scope of that provision.
On a proper construction, Directive 69/335 concerning indirect taxes on the raising of capital, as amended by Directives 73/79, 73/80, 74/553 and 85/303, does not apply to a national tax on any appreciation in the value of immovable property, determined at the time when such property was contributed to a capital company. Being a general charge on the appreciation in value of immovable property, such a tax does not constitute capital duty levied on an increase in capital by contribution of assets of any kind, within the meaning of Article 4(1 )(c) of Directive 69/335.

On a proper construction, Directive 69/335 concerning indirect taxes on the raising of capital, as amended by Directives 73/79, 73/80, 74/553 and 85/303, applies to taxes such as registration charges, mortgage registration fees and land register fees, in so far as they are levied on transactions transferring property rights in immovable property on the occasion of the contribution of such property to a capital company. In such cases, those three charges constitute indirect taxes with the same characteristics as capital duty and are therefore caught by the prohibition laid down in Article 10 of Directive 69/335. However, Article 12 of that Directive must be interpreted as authorizing Member States — by way of a derogation from the prohibition in Article 10 — to levy such taxes, provided that they do not exceed those applicable to like transactions in the Member State charging them.
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1 Social security for migrant workers - Community rules - Persons covered - Retired civil servant who has not himself exercised the right to freedom of movement - Where his child has moved with her mother within the Community

2 Social security for migrant workers - Family benefits - Retired civil servant subject to German legislation - Child residing in another Member State - Definition of employed person for the purpose of paying family benefits - German institution competent - Application of the criteria laid down in Article 1(a) of Regulation No 1408/71 and in Annex I thereto - Effects - Refusal to award benefits under the national legislation - Whether permissible

(Council Regulation No 1408/71, Arts 1(a)(ii) and 73 and Annex I, Point I.C)

3 Social security for migrant workers - Family benefits - Pensioners - Legislation within the meaning of Article 77(2)(a) of Regulation No 1408/71 - Special schemes for civil servants and persons treated as such - Not included

(Council Regulation No 1408/71, Arts 1(j), 4(4) and 77(2)(a))

Summary

4 A retired civil servant who has worked only in the State of which he is a national is covered by Regulation No 1408/71 where his dependent child has moved within the Community with his former spouse, if he is, or has been, subject to the legislation of a Member State to which the regulation applies.

5 Article 73 of Regulation No 1408/71, read in conjunction with Point I.C of Annex I to the same regulation, is to be interpreted, for the purpose of payment of child allowance under German legislation, as not applying to a national of that Member State who receives, under its legislation, an old-age benefit as a retired civil servant, where that person has worked only in the Member State of which he is a national and his dependent child has moved within the Community with his former spouse. It appears from the wording of that annex, to which Article 1(a)(ii) of the regulation refers, that only workers compulsorily insured under one of the schemes mentioned therein are entitled to German family allowances in accordance with Chapter 7 of Title III of the regulation. Accordingly, to allow a retired civil servant to rely on Article 73 in order to receive German family allowances on the ground that the situation of civil servants must generally be treated in the same way as that of employed persons would involve disregarding the terms of Annex I.

6 Article 77(2)(a) of Regulation No 1408/71 is to be interpreted as not covering the situation of a person who draws a pension only under a special scheme for civil servants and persons treated as such. The term `legislation' used in that provision has the meaning stated in Article 1(j) of the regulation and therefore does not cover the statutes, regulations or other provisions or measures relating to the categories of benefits referred to in Article 4(4) of the regulation which include, in particular, special schemes for civil servants and persons treated as such.
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Agriculture - Common agricultural policy - Food aid - Implementation - Tendering procedure for the mobilisation and supply of skimmed-milk powder, butter and butteroil - Obligations of the successful tenderer - Delivery within the time-limits laid down - Not effected - Consequences - Liability, irrespective of forfeited security, for all additional costs - Deduction of the amount of the security from that due as compensation - Not permissible

(Commission Regulation No 1354/83, Arts 25(1), first para., and 26(6))

Summary

Regulation No 1354/83 laying down general rules for the mobilisation and supply of skimmed-milk powder, butter and butteroil as food aid must be interpreted to the effect that in the absence of force majeure a tenderer who has failed to deliver the goods concerned within the appropriate time-limits must bear all the financial consequences of that failure in accordance with the first paragraph of Article 25(1) of that regulation, even if the tendering securities have already been declared forfeit in application of Article 26(6) of that regulation, and those securities may not be deducted from the amounts due as compensation for the damage caused by failure to deliver the goods on the basis of the first paragraph of Article 25(1).