2004/227/EC: Council Decision of 26 February 2004 amending Decision 2002/736/EC authorising the Hellenic Republic to apply a measure derogating from Articles 2 and 28a of the Sixth Council Directive 77/388/EEC on the harmonisation of the laws of the Member States relating to turnover taxes
Date: 2004-02-26
Institutions: Council of the European Union
Subjects: Greece, derogation from EU law, tax exemption, tax harmonisation, waste, waste recycling

9.3.2004

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

L 70/35

II

(Acts whose publication is not obligatory)

COUNCIL

COUNCIL DECISION

of 26 February 2004

amending Decision 2002/736/EC authorising the Hellenic Republic to apply a measure derogating
from Articles 2 and 28a of the Sixth Council Directive 77/388/EEC on the harmonisation of the
laws of the Member States relating to turnover taxes

(2004/227/EC)

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European
Community,

Having regard to the Sixth Council Directive 77/388/EEC of 17
May 1977 on the harmonisation of the laws of the Member
States relating to turnover taxes — Common system of value
added tax: uniform basis of assessment (1), and in particular
Article 27 thereof,

Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,

Whereas:

(1)

(2)

Pursuant to Article 27(1) of Directive 77/388/EEC, the
Council, acting unanimously on a proposal from the
Commission, may authorise any Member State to intro-
duce or extend special measures for derogation from
that Directive in order to simplify the procedure for
charging the tax or to prevent certain types of
tax
evasion or avoidance.

By letter registered with the Secretariat-General of the
Commission on 10 October 2003, the Greek Govern-
ment requested the extension, until 31 December 2006,
of Decision 2002/736/EC (2) authorising it
to apply
special tax measures to the recyclable waste sector.

(3)

The other Member States were informed of Greece's
request on 24 October 2003.

(1) OJ L 145, 13.6.1977, p. 1. Directive as last amended by Directive

2004/7/EC (OJ L 27, 30.1.2004, p. 44).

(2) OJ L 233, 30.8.2002, p. 36.

(4)

Decision 2002/736/EC, authorised the Hellenic Republic
to apply, until 31 December 2003,
the following
measures:

(a) to

exempt

intra-Community

and
supplies of recyclable waste, such as scrap iron,
waste of iron and steel, glass, paper and board, by
taxable persons whose sales of such products in the
previous year amounted to less than EUR 900 000;

acquisitions

(b) to

exempt

intra-Community

and
supplies of non-ferrous metal waste, regardless of the
trader's gross turnover.

acquisitions

(5)

(6)

(7)

Taxable persons whose transactions are covered by the
above exemptions may, subject to the conditions laid
down by Greece, be authorised not to apply the exemp-
tions to their transactions.

The derogating measure was needed because of the diffi-
culty in dealing with fraud in this sector, where certain
operators, mainly small dealers, did not comply with
their obligations to pay to the authorities the tax they
had charged for their supplies. Enforcing collection of
the tax in this sector is especially difficult because of the
complications of identifying and supervising the activ-
ities of non-compliant traders. Hence these arrangements
constitute an effective fraud-prevention measure.

On 7 June 2000 the Commission published a strategy to
improve the operation of the VAT system in the short
term,
in which it undertook to rationalise the large
number of derogations currently in force. In some cases,
however,
this rationalisation could involve extending
certain particularly effective derogations to all Member
States. The Commission's communication of 20 October
2003 reiterates this compromise.

L 70/36

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Official Journal of the European Union

9.3.2004

(8)

(9)

therefore seems advisable to grant

the Hellenic
It
Republic an extension for the current derogation until
the date of entry into force of a special scheme for the
application of VAT to the recycled waste sector, but not
later than 31 December 2005.

The derogation has no adverse impact on the Commu-
nities' own resources accruing from VAT, nor does it
have an effect on the amount of VAT charged at the
final stage.

(10)

In order to ensure the continuous application of Deci-
sion 2002/736/EC, provision should be made for this
Decision to apply retroactively,

date of entry into force of a special scheme for the application
of VAT to the recycled waste sector amending Directive 77/
388/EEC, but not later than 31 December 2005’.

Article 2

This Decision shall apply from 1 January 2004.

Article 3

This Decision is addressed to the Hellenic Republic.

HAS ADOPTED THIS DECISION:

Done at Brussels, 26 February 2004.

Article 1

In Article 1 of Decision 2002/736/EC, the date ‘31 December
‘until the
2003’ shall be replaced by the following wording:

For the Council

The President

N. DEMPSEY