CELEX: C2002/233/03
Language: en
Date: 2002-09-28 00:00:00
Title: Judgment of the Court (Fifth Chamber) 11 July 2002 in Case C-371/99 (Reference for a preliminary ruling from the Hoge Raad der Nederlanden): Liberexim BV v Staatssecretaris van Financiën (Sixth VAT Directive — Importation by removal of goods from customs arrangements — Transport by road under the TIR arrangements or the external Community transit arrangements — Changing of tractor — Unloading of trailer and destruction of seals — Removal of goods from customs supervision)

C 233/2                  EN                      Official Journal of the European Communities                                         28.9.2002
Chamber), composed of: P. Jann (Rapporteur), President of the               preliminary ruling in the proceedings pending before that
Chamber, D.A.O. Edward, A. La Pergola, M. Wathelet and                      court between Liberexim BV and Staatssecretaris van Financiën
C.W.A. Timmermans, Judges; J. Mischo, Advocate General;                     on the interpretation of Article 7(3) of the Sixth Council
H.A. Rühl, Principal Administrator, for the Registrar, has given            Directive (77/338/EEC) of 17 May 1977 on the harmonisation
a judgment on 6 June 2002, in which it:                                     of the laws of the Member States relating to turnover taxes —
                                                                            Common system of value added tax: uniform basis of assess-
                                                                            ment (OJ 1977 L 145, p. 1), as amended by Council Directive
1.    Annuls Commission Decision 1999/187/EC of 3 February
                                                                            92/111/EEC of 14 December 1992 amending Directive 77/
      1999 on the clearance of the accounts presented by the Member
                                                                            388 and introducing simplification measures with regard to
      States in respect of the expenditure for 1995 of the Guarantee
                                                                            value added tax (OJ 1992 L 384, p. 47), the Court (Fifth
      Section of the European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee
      Fund, in so far as it excludes the Kingdom of the Netherlands         Chamber), composed of: P. Jann, President of the Chamber,
                                                                            D.A.O. Edward and A. La Pergola (Rapporteur), Judges;
      from Community financing in the sum of NLG 32 746 529 by
                                                                            J. Mischo, Advocate General; H. von Holstein, Deputy Regis-
      way of aid for the processing of skimmed milk into casein and
                                                                            trar, has given a judgment on 11 July 2002, in which it has
      caseinates;
                                                                            ruled:
2.    Dismisses the remainder of the action by the Kingdom of the
      Netherlands;
3.    Orders the Commission of the European Communities to pay
      five sixths of the costs and the Kingdom of the Netherlands to
      pay one sixth of the cost;                                            1.    Where goods, transported by road under the external Com-
                                                                                  munity transit arrangements, are placed on the Community
                                                                                  market after a number of irregularities have been committed in
4.    Orders the French Republic to bear its own costs.
                                                                                  respect of those goods in various Member States, the goods
                                                                                  cease to be covered by those arrangements within the meaning
( 1) OJ C 226 of 7.8.1999.                                                        of Article 7(3) of 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, as amended by Council
                                                                                  Directive 92/111/EEC of 14 December 1992 amending
                                                                                  Directive 77/388 and introducing simplification measures with
                                                                                  regard to value added tax, on the territory of the Member State
                                                                                  where the first operation which can be regarded as a removal of
                  JUDGMENT OF THE COURT                                           the goods from customs supervision was carried out.
                           (Fifth Chamber)
                                                                                  Any act or omission which prevents, if only for a short time,
                             11 July 2002                                         the competent customs authority from gaining access to goods
                                                                                  under customs supervision and from monitoring them as
                                                                                  provided for by the Community customs provisions must be
in Case C-371/99 (Reference for a preliminary ruling                              regarded as a removal of the goods in question from customs
from the Hoge Raad der Nederlanden): Liberexim BV v                               supervision.
                Staatssecretaris van Financiën ( 1)
(Sixth VAT Directive — Importation by removal of goods
from customs arrangements — Transport by road under
the TIR arrangements or the external Community transit                      2.    Removal of goods from customs supervision does not require
arrangements — Changing of tractor — Unloading of trailer                         intent, but, instead, only that certain objective conditions be
and destruction of seals — Removal of goods from customs                          met.
                              supervision)
                           (2002/C 233/03)
                     (Language of the case: Dutch)                          (1 ) OJ C 366 of 18.12.1999.
(Provisional translation; the definitive translation will be published
                    in the European Court Reports)
In Case C-371/99: Reference to the Court under Article 234
EC by the Hoge Raad der Nederlanden (Netherlands) for a