Gemeente Emmen v Belastingdienst Grote Ondernemingen.
Date: 1996-03-28
19. It should first be observed that whilst, according to the opening words of Article 13B of the Sixth Directive, the Member States are to lay down the conditions for exemptions for the purpose of ensuring the correct and straightforward application of the exemptions and of preventing any possible evasion, avoidance or abuse, those conditions cannot define the content of the exemptions provided for (Case 8/81  Becker  [1982] ECR 53, paragraph 32, and Case 173/88  Skatteministeriet  v  Henriksen  [1989] ECR 2763, paragraph 20).
20. In this case, as the Netherlands Government has rightly argued, Article 4(3)(b) of the Sixth Directive refers expressly to the Member States ' definitions of building land.  It follows that it is for the Member States to define what land is to be regarded as being building land, for the purposes of the application both of that provision and of Article 13B(h), in view of the reference made by that provision.
21. That interpretation is also borne out by the fact that the Commission ' s initial proposal and amended proposal for the Sixth Directive embodied a common definition of building land.  The Council, however, did not accept either of those proposals and finally deferred to the Member States ' definitions.
22. The Court has, moreover, held that, where the Community legislature makes an implied reference in a regulation to national usages, it is not for the Court to give a uniform Community definition to the terms employed (See Case 327/82  Ekro  v  Produktschap voor Vee en Vlees  [1984] ECR 107, paragraph 14).
24. Under Article 4(3)(b) of the Sixth Directive,   " " Building land"  shall mean any unimproved or improved land defined as such by the Member States
" .  It appears from the use of the conjunction   " or"  that that provision takes no account of any transformations which the land in question might have undergone.  Accordingly, the expression refers to land, irrespective as to whether or not it has been improved, which has been defined by the Member States as land intended for building.  That interpretation results, in particular, from the Dutch version of the Sixth Directive, which uses the expression   " als zodanig omschreven al dan niet bouwrijp gemaakte terreinen" , and from the Danish, Italian and Portuguese versions, in which the words   " unimproved or improved"  appear between commas, whilst the other versions do not contain anything to the contrary.
25. Lastly, whilst it is settled case-law that the exemptions provided for in Article 13 of the Sixth Directive have their own independent meaning in Community law (see Case C-453/93  Bulthuis-Griffioen  [1995] ECR I-2341, paragraph 18) and, consequently, the Member States may not alter their content, in particular in laying down conditions of application, that cannot be so where the Council has specifically conferred the task of defining certain terms of an exemption on the Member States, provided always that they comply with the objective pursued by Article 13B(h) of the Sixth Directive, which seeks to exempt from tax only supplies of land which has not been built on and is not intended to support a building.