Stephen Austin Saldanha and MTS Securities Corporation v Hiross Holding AG.
Date: 1997-10-02
13 Article 2 of the Act concerning the conditions of accession of the Kingdom of Norway, the Republic of Austria, the Republic of Finland and the Kingdom of Sweden and the adjustments to the Treaties on which the European Union is founded (OJ 1994 C 241, p. 21, hereinafter `the Act of Accession') provides that, from the date of accession, the provisions of the original Treaties are to be binding on the new Member States and are to apply in those States under the conditions laid down in those Treaties and in the Act of Accession.
14 In view of the fact that the Act of Accession contains no specific conditions whatsoever with regard to the application of Article 6 of the Treaty, the latter provision must be regarded as being immediately applicable and binding on the Republic of Austria from the date of its accession, with the result that it applies to the future effects of situations arising prior to that new Member State's accession to the Communities.  From the date of accession, therefore, nationals of another Member State can no longer be made subject to a procedural rule which discriminates on grounds of nationality, provided that such a rule comes within the scope ratione materiae of the EC Treaty.
The scope ratione materiae et personae of the first paragraph of Article 6 of the Treaty
15 It is first necessary to point out that the mere fact that a national of a Member State is also a national of a non-member country, in which he is resident, does not deprive him of the right, as a national of that Member State, to rely on the prohibition of discrimination on grounds of nationality enshrined in the first paragraph of Article 6 (see to that effect, with regard to Article 52 of the Treaty, Case C-369/90 Micheletti and Others v Delegación del Gobierno en Cantabria [1992] ECR I-4239, paragraph 15).
17 In this connection, the Court has held, in Case C-43/95 Data Delecta and Forsberg v MSL Dynamics [1996] ECR I-4661, paragraph 15, and in Case C-323/95 Hayes v Kronenberger [1997] ECR I-1711, paragraph 17, that such a rule of domestic procedure falls within the scope of application of the Treaty within the meaning of the first paragraph of Article 6, where the main proceedings relate to the exercise of the fundamental freedoms guaranteed by Community law, such as, in those cases, proceedings to recover payment for the supply of goods.
19 It should be noted in this regard that, while a rule of procedure such as that at issue in the main proceedings is in principle a matter for which the Member States are responsible, the Court has consistently held that such a provision may not discriminate against persons to whom Community law gives the right to equal treatment or restrict the fundamental freedoms guaranteed by Community law (Case 186/87 Cowan v Trésor Public [1989] ECR 195, paragraph 19).
20 In the abovementioned judgments in Data Delecta and Forsberg, paragraph 15, and Hayes, paragraph 17, the Court held that a rule of domestic procedure requiring for judicial proceedings, such as those at issue in those cases, the provision of security for costs was liable to have an effect, even though indirect, on trade in goods and services between Member States and therefore fell within the scope of application of the Treaty.