IN and JM v Belgische Staat.
Date: 2019-10-24
18


It should be noted that the fact that, in the main proceedings, evidence was obtained in criminal proceedings following a complaint by the Belgian tax authorities which had investigated VAT fraud does not mean per se, as the Advocate General noted in point 66 of her Opinion, that the use of that evidence for the purpose of adjusting personal income tax returns constitutes an implementation of EU law within the meaning of Article 51(1) of the Charter. Such use does not have any link to EU law which goes beyond the close relationship that may exist, in one Member State, between the rules on the levying of VAT and those on the levying of personal income tax or the indirect effects of one of those matters on the other (see, to that effect, judgment of 10 July 2014, Julián Hernández and Others, C‑198/13, EU:C:2014:2055, paragraph 34 and the case-law cited).
21


In that regard, it should be borne in mind that the Court has recognised as admissible requests for a preliminary ruling concerning provisions of EU law in situations where the facts of the case in the main proceedings fell outside the scope of EU law but where those provisions of EU law had been rendered applicable by national law due to a reference made by that law to the content of those provisions (see, to that effect, judgments of 18 October 2012, Nolan, C‑583/10, EU:C:2012:638, paragraph 45, and of 15 November 2016, Ullens de Schooten, C‑268/15, EU:C:2016:874, paragraph 53 and the case-law cited).
22


Where, in regulating purely internal situations, national legislation adopts the same solutions as those adopted in EU law in order, for example, to avoid discrimination against nationals of the Member State in question or any distortion of competition, or to ensure a single procedure is applied in comparable situations, it is clearly in the interest of the European Union that, in order to forestall future differences of interpretation, provisions or concepts taken from EU law should be interpreted uniformly, irrespective of the circumstances in which they are to be applied (see, to that effect, judgments of 18 October 1990, Dzodzi, C‑297/88 and C‑197/89, EU:C:1990:360, paragraph 37; of 17 July 1997, Leur-Bloem, C‑28/95, EU:C:1997:369, paragraph 32; and of 18 October 2012, Nolan, C‑583/10, EU:C:2012:638, paragraph 46).
23


Thus, an interpretation by the Court of provisions of EU law in situations not falling within the scope of those provisions is warranted where such provisions have been made directly and unconditionally applicable to such situations by national law, in order to ensure that those situations and situations falling within the scope of those provisions are treated in the same way (judgments of 18 October 2012, Nolan, C‑583/10, EU:C:2012:638, paragraph 47, and of 7 November 2018, C and A, C‑257/17, EU:C:2018:876, paragraph 33).
24


In a situation such as that at issue in the main proceedings, which does not fall within the scope of EU law, it is for the referring court to indicate to the Court, in accordance with the requirements of Article 94 of the Rules of Procedure of the Court, in what way the dispute pending before it has a connecting factor with the provisions of EU law that makes the preliminary ruling on interpretation necessary for it to give judgment in that dispute (see, to that effect, judgments of 15 November 2016, Ullens de Schooten, C‑268/15, EU:C:2016:874, paragraph 55, and of 20 September 2018, Fremoluc, C‑343/17, EU:C:2018:754, paragraph 22).
25


However, given that EU law does not make provision for rules relating to the procedure for the taking of evidence in cases of VAT fraud and given that it is for the Member States to establish such rules in accordance with the principle of the effectiveness of EU law and the rights guaranteed by that law (see, to that effect, judgments of 17 December 2015, WebMindLicenses, C‑419/14, EU:C:2015:832, paragraphs 65 to 68, and of 17 January 2019, Dzivev and Others, C‑310/16, EU:C:2019:30, paragraph 24), it is hard to conceive of there being a reference in national law to provisions of EU law in this area. In any event, it is not apparent from the order for reference that Belgian law makes such a reference.