larimo/cjeu-paragraph-retrieval huggingface dataset:
Lieselotte Hartmann Troiani v Landesversicherungsanstalt Rheinprovinz.
Date: 1989-05-18
12 It should be noted at the outset that national legislation making the right voluntarily to make retroactive payments of pension-insurance contributions subject to certain conditions falls within the concept of continued insurance within the meaning of Article 9 of Regulation No 1408/71 . As the Court ruled in its judgment of 16 March 1977 in Case 93/76 Liégeois v Office national des pensions pour travailleurs salariés (( 1977 )) ECR 543, that provision covers "every type of insurance incorporating a voluntary element and it matters little whether there is any continuance of existing insurance or not ".
The first question
15 As regards Article 9(2 ) of Regulation No 1408/71, the object of that provision is to guarantee that periods of insurance completed in different Member States are treated as equivalent so that the persons concerned can satisfy the condition of a minimum length of insurance periods where national legislation makes admission to a voluntary or optional insurance scheme subject to such a condition .
16 On the other hand, it is clear from the wording of Article 9(2 ) that it does not govern the other conditions to which the legislation of any Member State may make subject the acquisition of a right, such as the right to contribute to a national scheme of voluntary or optional continued insurance .
20 In order to safeguard the effective exercise of the right to freedom of movement enshrined in Article 48 of the Treaty, the Council was required, under Article 51 of the Treaty, to set up a system designed to help workers overcome obstacles arising from national laws which they might encounter in the field of social security . The Council carried out that duty by introducing Regulation No 1408/71 .
21 It is true, as the Court ruled in its judgment of 25 February 1986 in Case 284/84 Spruyt v Sociale Verzekeringsbank (( 1986 )) ECR 685, paragraph 19, that the aim of Articles 48 and 51 of the Treaty 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 an individual Member State . However, as the Court held in its judgments of 24 April 1980 in Case 110/79 Coonan v Insurance Officer (( 1980 )) ECR 1445, paragraph 12 and of 24 September 1987 in Case 43/86 Sociale Verzekeringsbank v de Rijke (( 1987 )) ECR 3611, paragraph 12, it is for the legislature of each Member State to lay down the conditions creating the right or the obligation to become affiliated to a social security scheme or to a particular branch under such a scheme, provided always that in this connection there is no discrimination between nationals of the host State and nationals of other Member States . The documents before the Court make it clear that the provisions of national legislation which gave rise to the main proceedings do not operate any discrimination on the basis of nationality .
Top Hit Holzvertrieb GmbH v Commission of the European Communities.
Date: 1989-05-23
18 It must be recalled first of all that that provision must be interpreted as meaning that when the three conditions set out therein are satisfied the person liable to pay duties is entitled to the waiver of post-clearance recovery ( see the judgment of the Court of 22 October 1987 in Case 314/85 Foto-Frost v Hauptzollamt Luebeck-Ost (( 1987 )) ECR 4199 ).
26 It is clear from all the rules set forth above that the person making the declaration must supply the customs authorities with all the information required in relation to the customs treatment requested for the goods in question . Particularly where exemption from import duties depends on the tariff classification of the goods, as for example in the application of the generalized system of preferences to certain products, that obligation includes the determination of the correct subheading of the Common Customs Tariff . If on the sole basis of their description or appearance goods cannot be classified with sufficient accuracy under a particular subheading of the Common Customs Tariff, the person making the declaration must give all other relevant information relating in particular to the characteristics and intended use of the goods in order to enable them to be classified correctly .
Paul F. Weber (in liquidation) v Milchwerke Paderborn-Rimbeck eG.
Date: 1989-05-25
13 In order to reply to those questions it should be pointed out, first, that according to settled case-law ( see, for example, the judgments of 23 March 1972 in Case 36/71 Henck v Hauptzollamt Emden (( 1972 )) ECR 187, paragraph 4, and of 26 September 1985 in Case 166/84 Thomasduenger v Oberfinanzdirection Frankfurt am Main (( 1985 )) ECR 3001, paragraph 13 ), 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 characteristics and objective properties as defined in the wording of the relevant heading of the Common Customs Tariff and of the notes to the sections or chapters .
14 With regard to the question whether the method of manufacture of the product has an effect on classification for customs purposes, the Court has already decided ( see the judgment of 16 December 1976 in Case 38/76 Industriemetall LUMA v Hauptzollamt Duisburg (( 1976 )) ECR 2027, paragraph 7 ) that whilst the Customs Tariff does indeed in certain cases contain references to manufacturing processes it is generally preferred to employ criteria for classification based on the objective characteristics and properties of products which can be ascertained when customs clearance is obtained .
15 Consequently, manufacturing processes are decisive only when the subheading so provides ( see, for example, the judgment of 8 December 1987 in Case 42/86 Directeur général des douanes et droits indirects v Artimport ( 1987 ) ECR 4817 ).
16 In this case, subheading 04.02 A II ( b ) 1 of the Common Customs Tariff makes no reference to the manufacturing process as a criterion for classification, from which it must be concluded that the process whereby the product at issue in the main proceedings was manufactured has no effect on its classification for customs purposes .
Commission of the European Communities v Hellenic Republic.
Date: 1989-05-30
12 According to the Commission, the Greek rules infringe Articles 7, 48, 52 and 59 of the Treaty . In that regard, it should be pointed out first that the general prohibition of discrimination on grounds of nationality laid down in Article 7 of the Treaty has been implemented, in regard to their several domains, by Articles 48, 52 and 59 of the Treaty . Consequently, any rules incompatible with those provisions are also incompatible with Article 7 ( see the judgments of 21 June 1974 in Case 2/74 Reyners v Belgium (( 1974 )) ECR 631, of 14 July 1976 in Case 13/76 Donà v Mantero (( 1976 )) ECR 1333 and of 9 June 1977 in Case 90/76 van Ameyde v UCI (( 1977 )) ECR 1091 ).
13 Article 7 of the Treaty provides that : "Within the scope of application of this Treaty, and without prejudice to any special provisions contained therein, any discrimination on grounds of nationality shall be prohibited"; it applies independently only to situations governed by Community law in regard to which the Treaty lays down no specific prohibition of discrimination .
22 In particular, as is apparent from Article 54(3)(e ) of the Treaty and the General programme for the abolition of restrictions on freedom of establishment of 18 December 1961 ( Official Journal, English Special Edition, Second Series IX, p . 7 ), the right to acquire, use or dispose of immovable property on the territory of a Member State is the corollary of freedom of establishment .
Commission of the European Communities v Italian Republic.
Date: 1989-05-30
15 The Court has consistently held that a charge imposed on goods by reason of the fact that they cross a frontier is not a charge having equivalent effect prohibited by the Treaty if it constitutes consideration for a specific service actually and individually rendered to the trader, in an amount proportionate to that service ( see the judgment of 26 February 1975 in Case 63/74 Cadsky v Istituto Nazionale per il Commercio Estero (( 1975 )) ECR 281 ). For that to be so there must be a specific or individual benefit provided to the trader .
17 It follows from the foregoing that by charging traders in respect of intra-Community trade the cost of inspections and administrative formalities carried out during part of the normal business hours of the customs offices at frontier posts as determined by the second indent of Article 5(1)(a ) of Directive 83/643, as amended by Directive 87/53, the Italian Republic has failed to fulfil its obligations under Articles 9 and 12 of the EEC Treaty .
SA Roquette frères v Commission of the European Communities.
Date: 1989-05-30
12 Actions to establish non-contractual liability are governed, pursuant to the second paragraph of Article 215 of the EEC Treaty, by the general principles common to the laws of the Member States . A comparison of the legal systems of the Member States shows that as a general rule, subject to very few exceptions, a court may not of its own motion raise the issue of time limitation .
14 On the other hand, it is appropriate for the Court to verify, of its own motion, whether an action to establish non-contractual liability may be brought before it where the alleged damage includes monetary compensatory amounts overcharged by a national administration and only the national courts have jurisdiction to entertain actions for the reimbursement of such amounts .
Pilar Allué and Carmel Mary Coonan v Università degli studi di Venezia.
Date: 1989-05-30
7 In that regard it must be recalled that, as the Court held in the judgment of 3 July 1986 in Case 66/85 Lawrie-Blum v Land Baden-Wuerttemburg (( 1986 )) ECR 2121 ) a teaching post does not involve direct or indirect participation in the exercise of powers conferred by public law and in the discharge of functions whose purpose is to safeguard the general interests of the State or of other public authorities and which therefore require a special relationship of allegiance to the State on the part of persons occupying them and reciprocity of rights and duties which form the foundation of the bond of nationality .
9 The answer to the first question must therefore be that employment as a foreign-language assistant at a university is not employment in the public service within the meaning of Article 48(4 ) of the EEC Treaty .
The second question
11 In that connexcton it must be recalled that, according to the judgments of the Court, the principle of equal treatment of which Article 48(2 ) is one embodiment prohibits not only overt discrimination based on nationality but all covert forms of discrimination which, by applying other distinguishing criteria, in fact achieve the same result ( inter alia, judgment of 15 January 1986 in Case 41/84 Pinna v Caisse d' allocations familiales de la Savoie (( 1986 ) ECR 1 ).
12 In this regard it should be noted that, although it applies regardless of the nationality of the worker concerned, the time-limit imposed by the legislation in question on working as a foreign-language assistant in a university essentially concerns workers who are nationals of other Member States . According to the statistics supplied by the Italian Government, only 25% of foreign-language assistants are Italian nationals .
14 In this regard it should be stated that the danger of their losing contact with their mother tongue is slight, in the light of the increase in cultural exchanges and improved communications, and in addition it is open to the universities in any event to check the level of assistants' knowledge . Furthermore, it should be noted that under the legislation in question an assistant may be engaged by a university after working for six years in another university in the same Member State; the time-limit on the work in question therefore cannot be justified on the ground referred to by the Italian Government .
19 The answer to the first part of the second question should therefore be that Article 48(2 ) of the Treaty must be interpreted as precluding the application of a provision of national law imposing a limit on the duration of the employment relationship between universities and foreign-language assistants where there is in principle no such limit with regard to other workers .
Association générale des producteurs de blé et autres céréales (AGPB) v Office national interprofessionnel des céréales (ONIC).
Date: 1989-06-08
15 As the Court has consistently held ( see, in particular, the judgment of 11 March 1987 in Joined Cases 279, 280, 285 and 286/84 Rau and Others v Commission (( 1987 )) ECR 1069 ), the Commission' s implementing powers under the common agricultural policy must be given a wide interpretation . Since only the Commission is in a position to keep track of agricultural market trends and to act quickly when necessary, the Council may confer on it wide powers of discretion and action in that sphere and when it does so the limits of those powers must be determined in the light of the essential general aims of the common market organization .
Stichting Uitvoering Financiële Acties v Staatssecretaris van Financiën.
Date: 1989-06-15
10 The preliminary observation must be made that, as the Court pointed out in its judgment of 26 March 1987 in Case 235/85 Commission v Netherlands (( 1987 )) ECR 1485, the Sixth Directive confers a very wide scope on value-added tax comprising all economic activities of producers, traders and persons supplying services .
11 With regard to the exemptions provided for by the Sixth Directive, it is evident from the eleventh recital in its preamble that the exemptions constitute independent concepts of Community law which, as the Court stated in its judgment in Case 235/85, cited above, should be placed in the general context of the common system of VAT introduced by the Sixth Directive .
12 As for the scope of the exemptions thus provided for, it should be pointed out that in its judgment of 11 July 1985 in Case 107/84 Commission v Germany (( 1985 )) ECR 2655, the Court emphasized that although it is true that the exemptions are granted in favour of activities pursuing specific objectives, most of the provisions also define the bodies which are authorized to supply the exempted services and that those services are not defined by reference to purely material or functional criteria . In that judgment the Court also stated that Article 13 of the Sixth Directive does not provide exemption for every activity performed in the public interest, but only for those which are listed and described in great detail .
13 It is clear from the foregoing that the terms used to specify the exemptions envisaged by Article 13 of the Sixth Directive are to be interpreted strictly since they constitute exceptions to the general principle that turnover tax is levied on all services supplied for consideration by a taxable person .
14 Article 13(A)(1)(f ) of the Sixth Directive makes express reference only to independent groups of persons supplying services to their members . That is not the position where one foundation supplies services exclusively to another foundation, neither of the foundations being a member of the other . Since the conditions for exemption are precisely formulated, any interpretation which broadens the scope of Article 13(A)(1)(f ) of the Sixth Directive would be incompatible with the objective of that provision .
J. E. G. Achterberg-te Riele and others v Sociale Verzekeringsbank.
Date: 1989-06-27
9 The scope ratione personae of the Directive is determined by Article 2, according to which the Directive applies to the working population, to persons seeking employment and to workers and self-employed persons whose activity is interrupted by one of the risks set out in Article 3(1)(a ), that is to say illness, invalidity, old age, an accident at work or an occupational disease, or unemployment .
11 It follows from this analysis that the Directive does not apply to persons who have never been available for employment or who have ceased to be available for a reason other than the materialization of one of the risks referred to by the Directive .
13 Consequently, the answer to the first question in Cases 48 and 106/88 and Question 1(a ) in Case 107/88 must be that Article 2 of Council Directive 79/7 must be interpreted as meaning that the Directive does not apply to persons who have not had an occupation and are not seeking work or to persons who have had an occupation which was not interrupted by one of the risks referred to in Article 3(1)(a ) of the Directive and are not seeking work .
17 Consequently, the answer to the second question in Case 106/88 and Question 1(c ) in Case 107/88 must be that a person who is not referred to by Article 2 of Directive 79/7 may not rely on Article 4 of the Directive .
Heinz Kühne v Finanzamt München III.
Date: 1989-06-27
8 It is clear from the structure of the Sixth Directive that that provision is designed to prevent the non-taxation of business goods used for private purposes and therefore requires the taxation of the private use of such goods only where the tax paid on their acquisition was deductible .
9 Since a taxable person is not permitted to deduct the residual tax on business goods purchased second-hand from a non-taxable person, the VAT on such goods must be considered not to be deductible for the purposes of Article 6(2)(a ) of the Sixth Directive and no tax may therefore be levied under that provision on the depreciation of the goods in respect of their private use .
10 Such taxation of business goods on which the residual tax was not deductible would lead to double taxation contrary to the principle of fiscal neutrality which is inherent in the common system of value-added tax, of which the Sixth Directive forms part .
Karl Leukhardt v Hauptzollamt Reutlingen.
Date: 1989-06-27
13 As the Court held in its judgment of 17 May 1988 in Case 84/87 Erpelding (( 1988 )) ECR 2647, the structure and purpose of the regulations concerned indicate that they contain an exhaustive list of the situations in which reference quantities or individual quantities may be granted and set out precise rules concerning the determination of those quantities . Since none of those provisions makes it possible for producers to obtain reference to milk deliveries made by them outside the 1981 to 1983 period it must be held that such an option is excluded, even in cases where the persons concerned had no representative production throughout that period .
20 As regards the claims based on infringement of the right to enjoy property, the right to pursue a profession or occupation and the principles of legal certainty and protection of legitimate expectations, the Court has consistently held that when a situation necessitates the evaluation of a complex economic situation, as is the case concerning the common agricultural policy, the Community legislature enjoys a wide discretion as to the nature and scope of the measures to be taken . There is nothing in the documents before the Court to support the view that the limits of that discretion have been exceeded in this case and therefore those claims too must be rejected .
Industrie- en Handelsonderneming Vreugdenhil BV and Gijs van der Kolk - Douane Expediteur BV v Minister van Landbouw en Visserij.
Date: 1989-06-29
16 In this regard it should be noted that the Court has consistently held ( see, most recently, the judgment of 11 March 1987 in Joined Cases 279, 280, 285 and 286/84 Rau and Others v Commission (( 1987 )) ECR 1069, paragraph 14, and the judgment of 8 June 1989 in Case 167/88 Association générale des producteurs de blé et autres céréales v ONIC (( 1989 )) ECR 1653, paragraph 15 ) that it follows from the context of the Treaty in which Article 155 must be placed and also from practical requirements that the concept of implementation must be given a wide interpretation . Since only the Commission is in a position to keep track of agricultural market trends and to act quickly when necessary, the Council may confer on it wide powers in that sphere . Consequently, the limits of those powers must be determined by reference to the essential general aims of the market organization .
SC Belasco and others v Commission of the European Communities.
Date: 1989-07-11
33 It must first be recalled that, as the Court has consistently held, the fact that a cartel relates only to the marketing of products in a single Member State is not sufficient to exclude the possibility that trade between Member States might be affected .
34 Moreover, since the market concerned is susceptible to imports, the members of a national price cartel can retain their market share only if they defend themselves against foreign competition .
55 It must be observed first of all that, as pointed out above, the Commission did indeed examine the effects of the cartel on the market and its implementation by the members of Belasco with respect to compliance with quotas and discounts . As regards the alleged failure to reply to the applicants' arguments, it must be pointed out that, as the Court has held ( inter alia in Joined Cases 142 and 156/84 British American Tobacco Company Limited and Another v Commission (( 1987 )) ECR 4487 ), although under Article 190 of the Treaty the Commission is required to set out all the circumstances justifying the adoption of a decision and the legal considerations which led the Commission to adopt it, that article does not require the Commission to discuss all the matters of fact and of law which may have been dealt with during the administrative proceedings .