CELEX: 62007CJ0475
Language: en
Date: 2009-02-12
Title: Judgment of the Court (Third Chamber) of 12 February 2009. # Commission of the European Communities v Republic of Poland. # Failure of a Member State to fulfil obligations - Electricity tax - Directive 2003/96/EC - First subparagraph of Article 21(5) - Time at which the tax becomes chargeable. # Case C-475/07.

Judgment of the Court (Third Chamber) of 12 February 2009 – Commission v Poland
      (Case C-475/07)
      Failure of a Member State to fulfil obligations – Electricity tax – Directive 2003/96/EC – First subparagraph of Article 21(5) – Time at which the tax becomes chargeable
      1.                     Procedure – Application initiating proceedings – Formal requirements – Identification of the subject-matter of the dispute
            – Brief summary of the pleas in law on which the application is based – Unambiguous wording of the form of order sought by
            the applicant (Rules of Procedure of the Court of Justice, Art. 38(1)(c)) (see paras 43-44)
      2.                     Acts of the institutions – Directives – Implementation by Member States – Need for clear and precise transposition (Art. 249
            EC) (see para. 49)
      3.                     Actions for failure to fulfil obligations – Proof of failure – Burden of proof on Commission – Insufficient or inadequate
            transposition of a directive (Art. 226 EC) (see para. 54)
      Re: 
      
         
               Failure of a Member State to fulfil obligations – Failure to adopt, within the prescribed period, the measures necessary to
                  comply with Article 21(5) of Council Directive 2003/96/EC of 27 October 2003 restructuring the Community framework for the
                  taxation of energy products and electricity (OJ 2003 L 283, p. 51) – Time at which the electricity tax becomes chargeable.
               
            Operative part
      The Court: 
      
         
                  1.
               
               
                  
               
               
                  	Declares that, by failing to adapt, by 1 January 2006, its system of electricity tax, with regard to the time at which the
                     electricity tax becomes chargeable, to the requirements of the first subparagraph of Article 21(5) of Council Directive 2003/96/EC
                     of 27 October 2003 restructuring the Community framework for the taxation of energy products and electricity, as amended by
                     Council Directive 2004/74/EC of 29 April 2004, the Republic of Poland has failed to fulfil its obligations under that directive;
                  
               
            
         
                  2.
               
               
                  
               
               
                  	Orders the Republic of Poland to pay the costs.