larimo/cjeu-paragraph-retrieval huggingface dataset:
The Queen v Inland Revenue Commissioners, ex parte Commerzbank AG.
Date: 1993-07-13
13 As the Court held in its judgment in Case C-270/83 Commission v France [1986] ECR 273, at paragraph 18, the freedom of establishment which Article 52 grants to nationals of a Member State, and which entails the right for them to take up and pursue activities as self-employed persons under the conditions laid down for its own nationals by the law of the Member State where such establishment is effected, includes, pursuant to Article 58 of the EEC Treaty, the right of companies or firms formed in accordance with the law of a Member State and having their registered office, central administration or principal place of business within the Community to pursue their activities in the Member State concerned through a branch or agency. With regard to companies, it should be noted in this context that it is their seat in the abovementioned sense that serves as the connecting factor within the legal system of a particular State, like nationality in the case of natural persons. In the same judgment the Court held that acceptance of the proposition that the Member State in which a company seeks to establish itself may freely apply to it different treatment solely by reason of the fact that its seat is situated in another Member State would deprive the provision of all meaning.
14 Moreover, it follows from the Court' s judgment in Case 152/73 Sotgiu v Deutsche Bundespost [1974] ECR 153 (at paragraph 11) that the rules regarding equality of treatment forbid not only overt discrimination by reason of nationality or, in the case of a company, its seat, but all covert forms of discrimination which, by the application of other criteria of differentiation, lead in fact to the same result.
Adrianus Thijssen v Controledienst voor de verzekeringen.
Date: 1993-07-13
4 Mr Thijssen brought an action before the Raad van State for annulment of this decision, his sole submission being that the rejection of his application on the ground that he was not of Belgian nationality violated Articles 52 and 55 of the Treaty. He emphasizes in this regard that according to the judgment of the Court of Justice of 21 June 1974 in Case 2/74 Reyners v Belgium [1974] ECR 631), Article 52 of the Treaty has direct effect.
8 As a preliminary matter, it should be recalled that the first paragraph of Article 55 of the Treaty excludes from the application of the provisions on freedom of establishment activities which in a Member State are connected, even occasionally, with the exercise of official authority. Nevertheless, as the Court ruled in Reyners (cited above, at paragraph 45), the derogation provided for in Article 55 must be restricted to activities which in themselves are directly and specifically connected with the exercise of official authority.
9 Accordingly, the object of the question referred by the court requesting the preliminary ruling is to ascertain whether activities of the kind exercised by an approved commissioner pursuant to the Law of 1975 entail direct and specific participation in the exercise of official authority. To reply to this question, it is necessary to consider the nature of the duties carried out by approved commissioners under that Law, as they have been described by the national court.
21 As to the veto which an approved commissioner may enter against the implementation of a decision where such implementation could constitute an offence, it must be noted that a commissioner is obliged to refer the matter forthwith to the Insurance Inspectorate. While his veto has suspensory effect for a period of eight days, the final decision on the matter lies with the Insurance Inspectorate, which is thus in no way bound by the commissioner' s veto and, within the limits of its powers, will take such measures as the situation requires. Finally, it must be noted that, as is clearly set out in Article 40 of the Law of 1975, the approved commissioners perform their duties under the supervision of the Insurance Inspectorate.
22 Consequently, the auxiliary and preparatory functions of an approved commissioner vis-à-vis the Insurance Inspectorate ° which itself is the body which exercises official authority by taking the final decision ° cannot be regarded as having a direct and specific connection with the exercise of official authority within the meaning of the first paragraph of Article 55 of the Treaty.
23 Accordingly, the reply to the question put by the Raad van State must be that the first paragraph of Article 55 of the EEC Treaty is to be interpreted as meaning that the derogation from the right of establishment contained therein does not apply to the office of approved commissioner, as described in the order referring the question to the Court.
Commission of the European Communities v United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
Date: 1993-07-14
18 According to the case-law of the Court (see the judgment in Case 293/85 Commission v Belgium [1988] ECR 305, paragraph 14), in determining whether the period allowed in the reasoned opinion is reasonable, account must be taken of all the circumstances of the case.
33 In that connection it should be recalled that, according to the second indent of Article 1(2)(a) of the directive, "bathing water" means all running or still fresh waters, or parts thereof, and sea water in which bathing is not prohibited and is traditionally practised by a large number of bathers. That expression must be interpreted in the light of the directive' s underlying purpose as set out in the first two recitals in the preamble thereto, which state that, "in order to protect the environment and public health, it is necessary to reduce the pollution of bathing water and to protect such water against further deterioration" and that "surveillance of bathing water is necessary in order to attain, within the framework of the operation of the common market, the Community' s objectives as regards the improvement of living conditions, the harmonious development of economic activities throughout the Community and continuous and balanced expansion."
42 It is clear from Article 4(1) of the directive that the Member States are to take all necessary measures to ensure that, within 10 years following the notification of the directive, bathing water conforms to the limit values set in accordance with Article 3. This period is longer than that laid down for the implementation of the directive, namely two years from the date of notification (Article 12(1)), in order to enable the Member States to comply with the aforementioned requirement.
43 The only derogations from the obligation incumbent upon Member States to bring their bathing waters into conformity with the requirements of the directive are those provided for in Articles 4(3), 5(2) and 8, whose provisions are summarized above. It follows that the directive requires the Member States to take steps to ensure that certain results are attained, and, apart from those derogations, they cannot rely on particular circumstances to justify a failure to fulfil that obligation.
44 Consequently, the United Kingdom' s argument that it took all practicable steps cannot afford a further ground, in addition to the derogations expressly permitted, justifying the failure to fulfil the obligation to bring the waters at issue into conformity at least with the annex to the directive.
46 Even assuming that absolute physical impossibility to carry out the obligations imposed by the directive may justify failure to fulfil them, the United Kingdom has not, as the Advocate General pointed out at paragraph 56 of his Opinion, succeeded in establishing the existence of such impossibility in this case.
GruSa Fleisch GmbH & Co. KG v Hauptzollamt Hamburg-Jonas.
Date: 1993-07-15
13 In its judgment in Case 327/82 Ekro BV Vee- en Vleeshandel v Produktschap voor Vee- en Vlees [1984] ECR 107, paragraphs 13 and 14, the Court held, with regard to what was the precise anatomical definition of the cut referred to as "thin flanks" in subheading ex 02.01 A II a) 4 ex bb) in the list annexed to Commission Regulation (EEC) No 2787/81 of 25 September 1981 fixing the export refunds on the beef and veal (OJ 1981 L 271, p. 44), which was subsequently replaced by Regulation No 2773/82, that, notwithstanding the principle that provisions of Community law should be interpreted uniformly, it was not for the Court to give those terms a uniform Community definition, particularly in view of the fact that the Community legislature was aware of the differences in the exact meaning of the terms used, differences which were, however, of minor importance and did not justify modifying existing practices and methods.
22 It is settled case-law of the Court (see, in particular, Case 21/81 Bout [1982] ECR 381, paragraph 13), that, in order to ensure observance of the principles of legal certainty and the protection of legitimate expectations, the substantive rules of Community law must be interpreted as applying to situations existing before their entry into force only in so far as it clearly follows from their terms, objectives or general scheme that such effect must be given to them.
Criminal proceedings against Jean-Claude Levy.
Date: 1993-08-02
9 In Case C-345/89 Stoeckel [1991] ECR I-4047, the Court held that Article 5 of the directive is sufficiently precise to impose on the Member States the obligation not to lay down by legislation the principle that night work by women is prohibited, even if that is subject to exceptions, where night work by men is not prohibited. It follows that, in principle, a national court is under a duty to give full effect to that rule, refusing to apply any conflicting provision of national legislation (see the judgment in Case 106/77 Amministrazione delle Finanze dello Stato v Simmenthal [1978] ECR 629).
11 The first paragraph of Article 234 of the Treaty provides that the rights and obligations arising from agreements concluded before the entry into force of the Treaty between one or more Member States on the one hand, and one or more non-member countries on the other, are not affected by the provisions of the Treaty. Nonetheless, the second paragraph obliges the Member States to take all appropriate steps to eliminate any incompatibilities between such an agreement and the Treaty. Article 234 is of general scope and applies to any international agreement, irrespective of subject-matter, which is capable of affecting the application of the Treaty (see Case 812/79 Attorney General v Burgoa [1980] ECR 2787, paragraph 6).
12 According to the judgment in Case 10/61 Commission v Italy [1962] ECR 1, the purpose of the first paragraph of Article 234 of the Treaty is to make clear, in accordance with the principles of international law, that application of the Treaty does not affect the commitment of the Member State concerned to respect the rights of non-member countries under an earlier agreement and to comply with its corresponding obligations. It follows that, in that provision, the terms "rights and obligations" refer, as regards "rights", to the rights of non-member countries and, as regards "obligations", to the obligations of Member States.
13 Consequently, in order to determine whether a Community rule may be deprived of effect by an earlier international agreement, it is necessary to examine whether that agreement imposes on the Member State concerned obligations whose performance may still be required by non-member countries which are parties to it.
21 However, in proceedings for a preliminary ruling, it is not for this Court but for the national court to determine which obligations are imposed by an earlier international agreement on the Member State concerned and to ascertain their ambit so as to be able to determine the extent to which they constitute an obstacle to the application of Article 5 of the directive.
Pilar Allué and Carmel Mary Coonan and others v Università degli studi di Venezia and Università degli studi di Parma.
Date: 1993-08-02
15 The reply to that argument is that the provisions of the Treaty do not preclude the adoption by the Member States of measures which are applicable without distinction, which are intended to ensure the proper management of their universities and which could affect, in particular, the nationals of other Member States. However, such measures must respect the principle of proportionality, that is to say that they must be necessary and appropriate to attain the objective pursued.
Commission of the European Communities v French Republic.
Date: 1993-08-02
12 In reply to that argument, it is sufficient to observe that, as the Court has consistently held, the subject-matter of an action under Article 169 is determined in the Commission' s reasoned opinion and that, even where the default has been remedied after the period prescribed by the second paragraph of that article, there is still an interest in pursuing the action (see the judgment in Case 39/72 Commission v Italy [1973] ECR 101, paragraph 9).
Commission of the European Communities v Hellenic Republic.
Date: 1993-08-02
6 Directives 83/182 and 83/183, adopted on the basis of Article 99 of the Treaty, seek to eliminate obstacles to the establishment of an internal market resulting from the taxation arrangements applied to temporary and permanent importation of certain means of transport for private or business use. As the Court pointed out in its judgment in Case C-297/89 Rigsadvokaten v Ryborg [1991] ECR I-1943, the concept of normal residence is fundamental to the system established by Directive 83/182. That is equally true of Directive 83/183.
Maria Grana-Novoa v Landesversicherungsanstalt Hessen.
Date: 1993-08-02
22 It follows from the foregoing that, as regards international social security conventions, the Regulation is based on the principle that, in relations between the Member States and save for certain exceptions exhaustively enumerated, first, existing conventions cannot deprive the nationals of those States of the benefit of the scheme for coordination of the national social security systems which it has established and, secondly, new conventions concluded between the Member States cannot derogate from the rules and spirit of the Regulation, so that Community nationals must always be able to avail themselves of the provisions of the Regulation as regards the social security institutions of the various Member States concerned.
Marius Larsy v Institut National d'Assurances Sociales pour Travailleurs Indépendants.
Date: 1993-08-02
8 First of all, the Court has consistently held that, whereas it is not for the Court, in the context of Article 177 of the Treaty, to rule on the compatibility of a national law with Community law, it does have jurisdiction to provide the national court with all the elements of interpretation under Community law to enable it to assess that compatibility for the purpose of deciding the case before it (see for example Case 369/89 Piageme v BVBA Peeters [1991] ECR I-2971, paragraph 7).
11 It is settled law (see most recently Joined Cases 90 and 91/91 Office National des Pensions v Di Crescenzo and Casagrande [1992] ECR I-3851, paragraph 15) that when a migrant worker receives a pension solely by virtue of the legislation of one Member State, the provisions of Regulation No 1408/71 do not preclude that national legislation from being applied to him in its entirety, including the anti-overlapping rules.
12 However, it is clear from the same case-law (see Di Crescenzo and Casagrande paragraph 16) that if the application solely of the legislation of the Member State in question proves less favourable to the worker than that of the Community rules in Article 46 of Regulation No 1408/71, it is the provisions of the latter article that must be applied in their entirety.
15 The calculation of the benefit in accordance with Article 46(1) and (2) of Regulation No 1408/71 must be carried out in three stages, which are described in paragraph 19 of the Di Crescenzo and Casagrande judgment.
19 If a worker was compelled to pay old-age pension contributions in two Member States for one and the same period, the coexistence of the two pensions to which he is entitled by virtue of those contributions cannot be considered unjustified.
20 It is true that the Court has ruled that the anti-overlapping rule in Article 46(3) of Regulation No 1408/71 applies in all cases where the total sum of the benefits calculated in accordance with Article 46(1) and (2) exceeds the limit of the highest theoretical amount of pension, even if the exceeding of that limit is not due to the duplication of insurance periods (Case 323/86 Collini v ONPTS [1987] ECR 5489, paragraph 13).
22 It must therefore be found that the objective of Article 46(3) of Regulation No 1408/71 precludes the application of the anti-overlapping rule of that provision where a person has worked in two Member States during the same period and has had to pay old-age pension contributions in both States during that period.
Hans Dinter GmbH & Co. v Hauptzollamt Bad Reichenhall.
Date: 1993-08-02
17 The method of determining the import price in the latter situation is provided for in Article 3(3) of the regulation, which applies when the invoice presented to the customs authorities has not been drawn up by the exporter in the country in which the products originated. That provision lays down that in those circumstances the import price is determined in particular by reference to the importer' s resale price.
18 That method applies only in the absence of other factors or if the customs authorities are doubtful as to the price shown on the invoice. If it is certain that the price paid to the intermediary by the importer and the importer' s subsequent resale price exceed the minimum import price, the purpose of Regulation No 1626/85 has been achieved. It is therefore on the basis of those prices that the comparison must be made.
19 This interpretation is supported by the fact that the legal basis for Regulation No 1626/85 is to be found in Council Regulation (EEC) No 516/77 of 14 March 1977 on the common organization of the market in products processed from fruit and vegetables (OJ 1977 L 73, p. 1) and in Council Regulation (EEC) No 521/77 of 14 March 1977 laying down detailed rules for applying protective measures in the market in products processed from fruit and vegetables (OJ 1977 L 73, p. 28), Article 2(2) of which specifies, amongst other things, that those protective measures may only be taken "to such extent and for such length of time as is strictly necessary". It follows that when the purpose pursued by the protective measures is achieved, the levying of a countervailing charge is unlawful.
Hoche GmbH v Bundesanstalt für Landwirtschaftliche Marktordnung.
Date: 1993-08-02
20 It must be emphasized that the Community legislature did not lay down provisions regulating in detail all the methods of control, and has thus left the Member States at liberty to regulate them in accordance with their own legal system and on their own responsibility by choosing the most appropriate solution (Joined Cases 146/81, 192/81 and 193/81 BayWa v BALM [1982] ECR 1503, paragraph 20).
Commission of the European Communities v Italian Republic.
Date: 1993-08-02
12 According to Article 9(d) of the directive, the derogation for which it provides, namely exemption from the obligation to publish a notice of a call for tenders, is available only if three conditions are fulfilled concurrently. That provision requires the existence of an unforeseeable event, extreme urgency rendering the observance of time-limits laid down by other procedures impossible and, finally, a casual link between the unforeseeable event and the extreme urgency resulting therefrom.
13 The sequence of events analysed in detail by the Advocate General in paragraphs 8 and 13 of his Opinion shows that there was nothing to prevent the Italian Government in this case from complying with the time-limits of the accelerated procedure provided for by the directive.
Commission of the European Communities v Italian Republic.
Date: 1993-08-02
3 Article 8(1) of the directive provides that Member States are immediately to communicate to the Commission any draft technical regulation, except where such technical regulation merely transposes the full text of an international or European standard, and also to indicate the grounds which make the enactment of such a technical regulation necessary. The Commission is immediately to notify the other Member States of the draft.
Jepsen Stahl GmbH v Hauptzollamt Emmerich.
Date: 1993-08-02
9 The Court has consistently held (see, in particular, Case 40/88 Weber v Milchwerke Paderborn-Rimbeck [1989] ECR 1395, paragraph 13) that, in the interests of legal certainty and ease of verification, the decisive criterion for the classification of goods for customs purposes is in general to be sought in their objective characteristics and properties as defined in the wording of the relevant heading of the Common Customs Tariff and of the notes to the sections or chapters.
Commission of the European Communities v Kingdom of the Netherlands.
Date: 1993-08-02
9 The Court has consistently held that a Member State cannot rely on provisions, practices or circumstances in its internal legal system to justify its failure to comply with obligations and time-limits laid down in Community directives (see, in particular, Case C-246/88 Commission v Italy [1991] ECR I-2049).
Driessen en Zonen, A. Molewijk, Motorschiff Sayonara Basel AG and vof Fa. C. Mourik en Zoon v Minister van Verkeer en Waterstaat.
Date: 1993-10-05
23 It is settled law that the European Parliament must be reconsulted on each occasion when the text finally adopted, viewed as a whole, departs substantially from the text on which the Parliament has already been consulted, except in cases where the amendments essentially correspond to the wishes of the Parliament itself (Case C-65/90 Parliament v Council [1992] ECR I-4593, paragraph 16).
33 First, there is no basis for any legitimate expectation on the part of the plaintiffs that the rules provided for in the abovementioned Commission proposal would be maintained, since it is clear from Article 149 of the Treaty that the Commission may amend such a proposal at any time and that the Council may adopt an act constituting an amendment to the proposal.
36 As regards the plaintiffs' allegation that the contested provisions are disproportionate, it must first be observed that those provisions constitute an appropriate way of limiting new investments in a sector characterized by structural overcapacity, an objective which, as is apparent from the third recital in its preamble, is pursued by the regulation.
Criminal proceedings against José Vanacker and André Lesage and SA Baudoux combustibles.
Date: 1993-10-12
7 The reply to this part of the question must be that, under the system of judicial cooperation established by Article 177 of the Treaty, the interpretation of national rules is a matter for the national courts and not for the Court of Justice, even though it has been consistently held that where national rules have been adopted in order to implement a Community directive, those courts are required to interpret their national law in the light of the wording and the purpose of the directive (see Case 80/86 Criminal proceedings against Kolpinghuis Nijmegen [1987] ECR 3969).
9 In order to reply to the second part of the question, it must be observed, first, that, since the question of the collection of waste oil has been regulated in a harmonized manner at Community level by the directive, any national measure relating thereto must be assessed in the light of the provisions of the directive and not of Articles 30 to 36 of the Treaty.