larimo/cjeu-paragraph-retrieval huggingface dataset:
Augusto Pian v Office national des pensions.
Date: 1990-04-05
8 The Court has consistently held ( see in particular the judgment of 5 May 1983 in Case 238/81 Raad van Arbeid v Van der Bunt-Craig (( 1983 )) ECR 1385, paragraph 15 ) that where a worker receives a pension pursuant to national legislation alone, the provisions of Regulation No 1408/71 do not prevent that national legislation from being applied to him in its entirety, including any national rules against overlapping benefits .
13 Those decisions also apply in cases in which old-age ( retirement ) pensions due under the legislation of a Member State do not arise as a result of the conversion of invalidity benefits, provided that the old-age pension, whether or not arising from such a conversion, is of the same kind as an invalidity pension ( see judgment of 18 April 1989 in Case 128/88 Di Felice v Inasti (( 1989 )) ECR 923, paragraph 14 ).
15 Finally, it must be emphasized that the amount obtained pursuant to Article 46(1 ) and ( 2 ) of Regulation No 1408/71 must be reduced in accordance with Article 46(3 ), which fixes a ceiling for the amount which a worker may receive under Article 46, namely the highest of the theoretical amounts of benefits calculated according to Article 46(2)(a ). Article 46(3 ) is applicable, to the exclusion of national rules against overlapping ( see the judgment in Van der Bunt-Craig, cited above, paragraph 15, and in Di Felice, cited above ).
19 In those circumstances, it must be borne in mind that the Court has held that, where national legislation alone is applied, the classification of the benefits is not governed by Community law ( see judgment of 6 October 1987 in Case 197/85 ONPTS v Stefanutti (( 1987 )) ECR 3855, paragraph 17 ). It is therefore for the national court or tribunal to determine the substance of, and to interpret the provisions of, its national legislation as regards the overlapping of benefits .
E. M. Winter-Lutzins v Bestuur van de Sociale Verzekeringsbank.
Date: 1990-05-02
13 In its judgment of 25 February 1986 in Case 284/84 Spruyt v Sociale Verzekeringsbank (( 1986 )) ECR 685, the Court ruled that the provisions of Regulation No 1408/71, and in particular those of Annex VI thereto, were adopted to implement Article 51 of the EEC Treaty and must be interpreted in the light of the objective of Article 51, which is to contribute to the establishment of the greatest possible freedom of movement for migrant workers, which is one of the foundations of the Community .
14 Article 51 requires the Council to adopt such measures in the field of social security as are necessary to provide freedom of movement for workers by securing, inter alia, payment of benefits for persons resident in the territories of the Member States . The aim of Articles 48 to 51 would not be attained if, as a consequence of the exercise of their right to freedom of movement, workers were to lose the advantages in the field of social security guaranteed to them by the laws of a single Member State .
18 The application of the residence clauses cannot have the effect of preventing a recipient from having periods prior to 1 January 1957 during which he was aged over 15 years and had a link with the Netherlands treated as periods of insurance . The other effects of the residence clauses, as far as the transitional arrangements under the Algemene Ouderdomswet are concerned, are authorized by the provisions of Annex VI, which limit the scope of Article 10 in that regard .
Oberhausener Kraftfutterwerk Wilhelm Hopermann GmbH v Bundesanstalt für landwirtschaftliche Marktordnung.
Date: 1990-05-02
7 According to the Court' s case-law, the Commission is authorized, in the exercise of the powers conferred on it by the Council with a view to implementing a common organization of the markets in the agricultural sector, to adopt all the detailed rules of application necessary for the proper functioning of the system of aid provided for, so long as they are not contrary to the basic regulation or the implementing rules of the Council ( see, most recently, the judgment of 18 January 1990 in Case C-345/88 Firma Butterabsatz (( 1990 )) ECR I-159 ). The duty of management and supervision with which the Commission is thus entrusted entails the power to fix periods and to provide for appropriate penalties for their non-observance which may go as far as the total loss of the right to aid if observance of those periods is necessary for the proper functioning of the scheme in question .
12 Even if Article 18(1 ) of Regulation No 2192/82, as amended by Regulation No 3322/82, does not mention the possibility of a penalty or the kind of penalty which might be imposed for failure to observe the period thus laid down, it is nevertheless clear from the general context of that provision that the consequence of a failure to observe the abovementioned period can only be loss of entitlement to the aid .
14 On that point, the Court has consistently held that, in order to determine whether a provision of Community law is consonant with the principle of proportionality, it is necessary to establish, in the first place, whether the means it employs to achieve its aim correspond to the importance of the aim and, in the second place, whether they are necessary for its achievement ( see, in particular, the judgment of 22 January 1986 in Case 266/84 Denkavit France v Forma (( 1986 )) ECR 149, paragraph 17 ).
15 As has been stated above, the obligation to notify the competent agency at the latest upon the entry of the products into the undertaking, imposed by Article 18(1 ) of Regulation No 2192/82 as amended by Regulation No 3322/82, is essential for the proper functioning of the scheme of aids established .
16 In those circumstances, loss of entitlement to the aid, which flows from non-compliance with that obligation, is not disproportionate in relation to the objective which the Community legislature has sought to attain .
Oberhausener Kraftfutterwerk Wilhelm Hopermann GmbH v Bundesanstalt für landwirtschaftliche Marktordnung.
Date: 1990-05-02
8 According to the Court' s case-law, the Commission is authorized, in the exercise of the powers conferred on it by the Council with a view to implementing a common organization of the markets in the agricultural sector, to adopt all the detailed rules of application necessary for the proper functioning of the system of aid provided for, so long as they are not contrary to the basic regulation or the implementing rules of the Council ( see, most recently, the judgment of 18 January 1990 in Case C-345/88 Butterabsatz (( 1990 )) ECR I-159 ). The duty of management and supervision with which the Commission is thus entrusted entails the power to fix periods and to provide for appropriate penalties for their non-observance which may go as far as the total loss of the right to aid if observance of those periods is necessary for the proper functioning of the scheme in question .
13 On that point, the Court has consistently held that, in order to determine whether a provision of Community law is consonant with the principle of proportionality, it is necessary to establish, in the first place, whether the means it employs to achieve its aim correspond to the importance of the aim and, in the second place, whether they are necessary for its achievement ( see, in particular, the judgment of 22 January 1986 in Case 266/84 Denkavit France v Forma (( 1986 )) ECR 149, paragraph 17 ).
Staat der Nederlanden v P. Bakker Hillegom BV.
Date: 1990-05-02
8 It must be pointed out at the outset that Article 36 of the Treaty, to which the national court' s judgment refers, cannot be applied in a situation such as that at issue in the main proceedings . The Court has consistently held that Article 36 must be interpreted strictly and thus cannot be understood as authorizing measures of a different nature from those referred to in Articles 30 to 34 ( see, inter alia, the judgment of 25 January 1977 in Case 46/76 Bauhuis v Netherlands (( 1977 )) ECR 5, paragraph 12 ).
The first question
11 It appears from the national court' s judgment that the fees in issue in the main proceedings relate to plant health inspections on exportation provided for by an international convention intended to encourage the free importation of plants into the countries of destination by establishing a system of inspections in the exporting State, recognized and organized on a reciprocal basis . In its judgment of 12 July 1977 in Case 89/76 Commission v Netherlands (( 1977 )) ECR 1355, the Court held that such fees were compatible with the rules of the Treaty "provided that their amount does not exceed the actual cost of the operations in respect of which they are charged" ( paragraph 16 of the judgment ). The national court' s first question seeks to clarify the scope of that condition .
12 It must be observed that that condition cannot be considered to have been satisfied unless there is a direct link between the amount of the fee and the actual inspection in respect of which the fee is charged . Without such a link, it would be impossible to ensure that the amount of the fee did not exceed the actual cost of the operation in respect of which it was charged .
Klaus Biehl v Administration des contributions du grand-duché de Luxembourg.
Date: 1990-05-08
12 The principle of equal treatment with regard to remuneration would be rendered ineffective if it could be undermined by discriminatory national provisions on income tax . For that reason the Council laid down, in Article 7 of Regulation ( EEC ) No 1612/68 of the 15 October 1968 on freedom of movement for workers within the Community ( Official Journal, English Special Edition 1968 ( II ), p . 475 ), that workers who are nationals of a Member State are to enjoy, in the territory of another Member State, the same tax advantages as national workers .
13 According to the case-law of the Court, the rules regarding equality of treatment forbid not only overt discrimination by reason of nationality but also all covert forms of discrimination which, by the application of other criteria of differentiation, lead to the same result ( judgment of 12 February 1974 in Case 152/73 Sotgiu v Deutsche Bundespost (( 1974 )) ECR 153, paragraph 11 ).
14 Even though the criterion of permanent residence in the national territory referred to in connection with obtaining any repayment of an overdeduction of tax applies irrespective of the nationality of the taxpayer concerned, there is a risk that it will work in particular against taxpayers who are nationals of other Member States . It is often such persons who will in the course of the year leave the country or take up residence there .
17 At the hearing, the administration des contributions also observed that there exists in Luxembourg law a non-contentious procedure allowing temporarily resident taxpayers to obtain repayment of an overdeduction of tax by adducing the unfair consequences which the application of Article 154(6 ) of the loi sur l' impôt sur le revenu entailed for them .
Office national de l'emploi v Antonio Di Conti.
Date: 1990-05-10
12 In the first place there is no foundation for it in the wording of Article 69(4 ) which merely requires that an unemployed person who returns to Belgium must again be employed there for three months in order to requalify for benefits in Belgium and thus concerns requalification for benefits and not acquisition of entitlement thereto .
13 In the second place, whereas the object of Article 69 of Regulation No 1408/71 is to encourage the mobility of persons seeking employment, the result of the interpretation advocated by the Office national de l' emploi would be to discourage it by making it more difficult for a worker who has exercised the right given to him by Article 69(1 ) to retain his entitlement to unemployment benefit than for workers in Belgium as a whole .
16 It is in return for the unemployed persons' retention of their rights to benefit for quite a long period while not remaining available to the Belgian employment services that they are required, under Article 69(4 ), to be employed again for at least three months in order to requalify for benefit when they return to Belgium .
Kongress Agentur Hagen GmbH v Zeehaghe BV.
Date: 1990-05-15
17 It should be stressed that the object of the Convention is not to unify procedural rules but to determine which court has jurisdiction in disputes relating to civil and commercial matters in intra-Community relations and to facilitate the enforcement of judgments . It is therefore necessary to draw a clear distinction between jurisdiction and the conditions governing the admissibility of an action .
18 With regard to an action on a warranty or guarantee, Article 6(2 ) therefore merely determines which court has jurisdiction and is not concerned with conditions for admissibility properly so called .
19 Moreover, the Court has consistently held that, as regards procedural rules, reference must be made to the national rules applicable by the national court ( see in particular, as regards the concept of lis alibi pendens, the judgment of 7 June 1984 in Case 129/83 Zelger v Salinitri (( 1984 )) ECR 2397, and, as regards the conditions for the enforcement of a foreign judgment, the judgments of 2 July 1985 in Case 148/84 Deutsche Genossenschaftsbank v Brasserie du pêcheur SA (( 1985 )) ECR 1981, and of 4 February 1988 in Case 145/86 Hoffmann v Krieg (( 1988 )) ECR 645 ).
20 It should be noted, however, that the application of national procedural rules may not impair the effectiveness of the Convention . As the Court has held, in particular in its judgment of 15 November 1983 in Case 288/82 Duijnstee v Goderbauer (( 1983 )) ECR 3663, a court may not apply conditions of admissibility laid down by national law which would have the effect of restricting the application of the rules of jurisdiction laid down in the Convention .
21 Accordingly, an application for leave to bring an action on a warranty or guarantee may not be refused expressly or by implication on the ground that the third parties sought to be joined reside or are domiciled in a Contracting State other than that of the court seised of the original proceedings .
Comune di Carpaneto Piacentino and others v Ufficio provinciale imposta sul valore aggiunto di Piacenza.
Date: 1990-05-15
8 It should be pointed out that, in the abovementioned judgment, the Court held that the first subparagraph of Article 4(5 ) of the Sixth Directive must be interpreted as meaning that activities pursued "as public authorities" within the meaning of that provision are those engaged in by bodies governed by public law under the special legal regime applicable to them and do not include activities pursued by them under the same legal conditions as those that apply to private traders . It is for each Member State to choose the appropriate legislative technique for transposing into national law the rule of treatment as a non-taxable person laid down in that provision .
10 According to the judgment of 17 October 1989 in Joined Cases 231/87 and 129/88, cited above, paragraph 15, it is the manner in which the activities are carried out that determines the scope of the treatment of public bodies as non-taxable persons . In so far as that provision makes such treatment of bodies governed by public law conditional upon their acting "as public authorities", it excludes therefrom activities engaged in by them as bodies governed not by public law but by private law . Consequently, the only criterion making it possible to distinguish with certainty between those two categories of activity is the legal regime applicable under national law .
11 The classification by the national legislature of certain activities exercised by local authorities as "administrative functions" may constitute an indication that those activities are subject to public law . However, as can be seen from the judgment of 17 October 1989, cited above, it is for the national court to make the appropriate classification of the activities concerned in the light of the criteria laid down by the Court .
Société nationale interprofessionnelle de la tomate and others v Commission of the European Communities.
Date: 1990-05-17
6 As regards the Commission' s decision not to bring an action for failure to fulfil obligations, it is clear from the scheme of Article 169 of the EEC Treaty that the Commission has no obligation to commence proceedings under that article; it has a discretionary power precluding the right of individuals to require it to adopt a particular position and to bring an action for annulment against its refusal to take action .
7 It is only if the Commission considers that the Member State in question has failed to fulfil one of its obligations that it delivers a reasoned opinion . Moreover, in the event that the Member State does not comply with the opinion within the time allowed, the Commission has in any event the right, but not the obligation, to apply to the Court of Justice for a declaration establishing the failure the Member State is accused of ( see, most recently, the judgment of 14 February 1989 in Case 247/87 Star Fruit v Commission (( 1989 )) ECR 291 ).
European Parliament v Council of the European Communities.
Date: 1990-05-22
13 First of all, in the first paragraph of Article 173 or Article 146, the Parliament is not included among the institutions which, like the Member States, can bring an action for annulment against any measure of another institution .
14 Furthermore, since the Parliament is not a legal person it cannot bring an action before the Court under the second paragraph of the articles in question, the scheme of which would, in any event, be inappropriate to an action for annulment brought by the Parliament .
17 First, an action for failure to act cannot be used to challenge the legal basis of a measure which has already been adopted .
21 Those prerogatives are one of the elements of the institutional balance created by the Treaties . The Treaties set up a system for distributing powers among the different Community institutions, assigning to each institution its own role in the institutional structure of the Community and the accomplishment of the tasks entrusted to the Community .
22 Observance of the institutional balance means that each of the institutions must exercise its powers with due regard for the powers of the other institutions . It also requires that it should be possible to penalize any breach of that rule which may occur .
23 The Court, which under the Treaties has the task of ensuring that in the interpretation and application of the Treaties the law is observed, must therefore be able to maintain the institutional balance and, consequently, review the observance of the Parliament' s prerogatives when called upon to do so by the Parliament, by means of a legal remedy which is suited to the purpose which the Parliament seeks to achieve .
27 Consequently, an action for annulment brought by the Parliament against an act of the Council or the Commission is admissible provided that the action seeks only to safeguard its prerogatives and that it is founded only on submissions alleging their infringement . Provided that condition is met, the Parliament' s action for annulment is subject to the rules laid down in the Treaties for actions for annulment brought by the other institutions .
28 In accordance with the Treaties, the Parliament' s prerogatives include participation in the drafting of legislative measures, in particular participation in the cooperation procedure laid down in the EEC Treaty .
Alimenta SA v Doux SA.
Date: 1990-05-22
9 However, it must be stated that it is not for the Court, when making a ruling under Article 177 of the EEC Treaty, to appraise the facts of the main proceedings or the well-foundedness of an opinion issued by an expert; in response to a question formulated in general terms as to the legal effect of the opinion, it is required to provide the national court with such interpretative information as may be necessary to enable it to decide the dispute .
17 That argument cannot be upheld, since Directive 71/118 expressly reserves to the Member States, until such time as greater harmonization is achieved, the power to prohibit the importation into their territory of poultrymeat which is deemed to be unfit for human consumption .
Commission of the European Communities v Federal Republic of Germany.
Date: 1990-05-23
14 It must be observed that the purpose of the second indent of Article 9(2 ) of Regulation No 2892/77 is to cancel out the effects of the transitional exemption for the transactions listed in Annex F to the Sixth Directive, in order to make it possible to establish a uniform basis of assessment for calculating VAT own resources, incorporating within the basis of assessment the portion of own resources which corresponds to the exempt transactions . In this way, those Member States which choose to exempt a particular sector are placed on an equal footing, in respect of VAT own resources, with the other Member States which do charge VAT in those sectors .
Criminal proceedings against Gourmetterie Van den Burg.
Date: 1990-05-23
9 As regards the degree of harmonization brought about by Directive 79/409, it should be noted that, although the bird in question may, in accordance with Article 6(2 ) and ( 3 ) of the directive, be hunted within the Member State in which it occurs, the fact remains that Article 14 authorizes the Member States to introduce stricter protective measures than those provided for under the directive . The directive has therefore regulated exhaustively the Member States' powers with regard to the conservation of wild birds .
11 First of all, as the Court emphasized in its judgment of 27 April 1988 in Case 252/85 Commission v France (( 1988 )) ECR 2243, Directive 79/409 grants special protection to migratory species which constitute, according to the third recital in the preamble to the directive, a common heritage of the Community . Secondly, in the case of the most endangered birds, the directive provides that the species listed in Annex I must be the subject of special conservation measures in order to ensure their survival and reproduction .
12 It follows from those general objectives laid down by Directive 79/409 for the protection of birds that the Member States are authorized, pursuant to Article 14 of the directive, to introduce stricter measures to ensure that the aforesaid species are protected even more effectively . With regard to the other bird species covered by Directive 79/409, the Member States are required to bring into force the laws, regulations and administrative provisions necessary to comply with the directive, but are not authorized to adopt stricter protective measures than those provided for under the directive, except as regards species occurring within their territory .
AERPO and others v Commission of the European Communities.
Date: 1990-06-06
18 It must also be borne in mind that in its judgment of 2 December 1971 in Case 5/71 Aktien-Zuckerfabrik Schoeppenstedt v Council (( 1971 )) ECR 975, paragraph 11, the Court held that the Community does not incur non-contractual liability for damage suffered by individuals as a consequence of action involving choices of economic policy, by virtue of the second paragraph of Article 215 of the Treaty, unless a sufficiently serious breach of a superior rule of law for the protection of the individual has occurred .
20 Finally, with respect to the alleged inadequacy of the statement of the reasons on which the contested regulation was based, the Court has consistently held ( see the judgment of 15 September 1982 in Case 106/81 Kind v European Economic Community (( 1982 )) ECR 2885, paragraph 14 ) that any inadequacy in the statement of the reasons on which a measure contained in a regulation is based is not sufficient to make the Community liable .