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26. That analysis is consistent with the case-law of the Court to the effect that the actual impact of the infringement on the market is not a decisive criterion for the determination of the amount of fines. In particular, factors relating to the intentional aspect of the infringement may be more significant than those relating to its effects, particularly where they relate to infringements which are intrinsically serious, such as market sharing (see the judgments in Thyssen Stahl v Commission , C‑194/99 P, EU:C:2003:527, paragraph 118; Prym and Prym Consumer v Commission , C‑534/07 P, EU:C:2009:505, paragraph 96; and Carbone-Lorraine v Commission , C‑554/08 P, EU:C:2009:702, paragraph 44).

17 Whilst it is true that a benefit such as family credit is granted or refused solely on the basis of the claimant' s assets, income, and the number and age of his dependent children, it does not follow that the grant of the benefit is dependent on an individual assessment of the claimant' s personal needs, which is a characteristic feature of social assistance (see Case 187/73 Callemeyn [1974] ECR 553, paragraphs 7 and 8). The criteria applied are objective, legally defined criteria which, if met, confer entitlement to the benefit, the competent authority having no power to take account of other personal circumstances.

25 Finally, it should also be observed that it follows from paragraphs 37 and 38 of the judgment in ESTAG, cited above, that, where it is a matter of deciding whether a transaction falls within the scope of Article 4 of Directive 69/335, it is necessary to adopt an economic approach, and not a formal one based solely on the source of the contributions, by asking which person must be deemed in fact to have paid the contributions.

54. As a general rule, the environment of a young child is essentially a family environment, determined by the reference person(s) with whom the child lives, by whom the child is in fact looked after and taken care of.

33. The term ‘discard’ must be interpreted in the light not only of the fundamental aim of the directive, which, according to the third recital in the preamble thereto, is ‘the protection of human health and the environment against harmful effects caused by the collection, transport, treatment, storage and tipping of waste’, but also of Article 174(2) EC. The latter provision states that ‘Community policy on the environment shall aim at a high level of protection taking into account the diversity of situations in the various regions of the Community. It shall be based on the precautionary principle and on the principles that preventive action should be taken …’. It follows that the term ‘discard’ – and, accordingly, the concept of ‘waste’, within the meaning of Article 1(a) of the directive – cannot be interpreted restrictively (see, to that effect, inter alia, Joined Cases C‑418/97 and C‑419/97 ARCO Chemie Nederland and Others [2000] ECR I‑4475, paragraphs 36 to 40, and Thames Water Utilities , paragraph 27).

58 Application of a national system of prior control to check the exact nature of the activity contemplated by the applicant has a legitimate objective in so far as it makes it possible to restrict the exercise of rights of entry and residence by Polish nationals invoking Article 44(3) of the Association Agreement to persons to whom that provision applies.

64. With regard, lastly, to the validity of Directive 2006/54 in the light of Article 3 TEU, Articles 8 TFEU and 157 TFEU, and Articles 21, 23, 33 and 34 of the Charter, it must be noted that it has been held consistently that the Court may decide not to give a preliminary ruling where the provision whose validity is the subject-matter of the reference manifestly has no bearing on the outcome of the main proceedings (see Case C‑222/04 Cassa di Risparmio di Firenze and Others [2006] ECR I‑289, paragraph 75).

52. A measure which would be just as effective whilst being less restrictive than the measure at issue is the obligation imposed, under the AVRAG, on a service provider to report, before the posting, to the local authorities the presence of one or more workers to be posted, the anticipated duration of their presence and the provision or provisions of services justifying the posting. It enables those authorities to monitor compliance with Austrian social welfare and wages legislation during the posting while at the same time taking account of the obligations by which the undertaking is already bound under the social welfare legislation applicable in the Member State of origin.

78. As regards the assessment by the Court of First Instance of applications made by a party for measures of organisation of the procedure or enquiry, it must be pointed out that the Court of First Instance is the sole judge of any need to supplement the information available to it in respect of the cases before it (see, for example, Case C‑315/99 P Ismeri Europa v Court of Auditors [2001] ECR I‑5281, paragraph 19; Case C‑136/02 P Mag Instrument v OHIM [2004] ECR I‑9165, paragraph 76; and Case C‑260/05 P Sniace v Commission [2007] ECR I‑0000, paragraph 77). Whether or not the evidence before it is sufficient is a matter to be appraised by it alone and is not subject to review by the Court of Justice on appeal, except where that evidence has been distorted or the inaccuracy of the findings of the Court of First Instance is apparent from the documents in the case-file ( Ismeri Europa v Court of Auditors , paragraph 19, and Joined Cases C‑24/01 P and C‑25/01 P Glencore and Compagnie Continentale v Commission [2002] ECR I‑10119, paragraphs 77 and 78).

34. Les entreprises souhaitant participer à des procédures de passation de marchés de travaux publics ne sont pas légalement obligées de recourir aux services de certification d’une SOA déterminée.

36. It must be noted that under Article 4(1) of the Sixth Directive a taxable person is any person who independently carries out any economic activity specified in paragraph 2 of that article. ‘Economic activities’ are defined in Article 4(2) as comprising all activities of producers, traders and persons supplying services, and in particular the exploitation of tangible or intangible property for the purpose of obtaining income therefrom on a continuing basis. ‘Exploitation’ within the meaning of Article 4(2) refers, in accordance with the requirements of the principle that the common system of VAT should be neutral, to all those transactions, whatever may be their legal form (see Case C‑186/89 Van Tiem [1990] ECR I‑4363, paragraph 18; Case C-306/94 Régie dauphinoise [1996] ECR I‑3695, paragraph 15, and Case C-77/01 EDM [2004] ECR I-0000, paragraph 48).

74. Thus, for the Federal Republic of Germany to oblige an air carrier, such as International Jet Management, which holds an operating licence issued by another Member State, to be issued with an authorisation, such as that at issue in the main proceedings, to enter its airspace is not proportionate to the legitimate objective pursued. The safety interests to which the public prosecutor’s office refers were already taken into account when the competent Austrian authority issued the operating licence to International Jet Management (see, to that effect, Neukirchinger , paragraph 42).

29 It follows from the clear terms of Article 5(2)(b) of Directive 2001/29 that the private copying exception is intended exclusively for natural persons making, or having the capacity to make, reproductions of protected works or subject matter for private use and for purposes neither directly nor indirectly commercial (see, to that effect, judgments of 21 October 2010 in Padawan, C‑467/08, EU:C:2010:620, paragraphs 43 to 45 and 54 to 56, and 5 March 2015 in Copydan Båndkopi, C‑463/12, EU:C:2015:144, paragraphs 22 to 25 and 64).

70. Article 100(5) of Regulation No 1083/2006, entitled ‘Procedure’, provides that ‘[i]n the absence of agreement, the Commission shall take a decision on the financial correction within six months of the date of the hearing taking account of all information and observations submitted during the course of the procedure. If no hearing takes place, the six-month period shall begin to run two months after the date of the letter of invitation sent by the Commission’.

28. Moreover, according to the sixth recital in its preamble, ensuring the effectiveness of the directive requires that the persons concerned can verify that the official entry of medicinal products on the list corresponds to objective criteria and that there is no discrimination between national medicinal products and those from other Member States ( Commission v Finland , paragraph 39).

39. Moreover, according to the sixth recital in the preamble to the directive, ensuring the effectiveness of the directive also requires that the persons concerned can verify that the official entry of medicinal products on the list corresponds to objective criteria and that there is no discrimination between national medicinal products and those from other Member States.

66. Although it is true that, as a general rule, neither criminal law nor the rules of criminal procedure fall within the Community’s competence (see, to that effect, Case 203/80 Casati [1981] ECR 2595, paragraph 27; Case C‑226/97 Lemmens [1998] ECR I‑3711, paragraph 19; and Case C‑176/03 Commission v Council , paragraph 47), the fact remains that when the application of effective, proportionate and dissuasive criminal penalties by the competent national authorities is an essential measure for combating serious environmental offences, the Community legislature may require the Member States to introduce such penalties in order to ensure that the rules which it lays down in that field are fully effective (see, to that effect, Case C‑176/03 Commission v Council , paragraph 48).

19 Those arguments cannot be accepted. Although in principle criminal legislation and the rules of criminal procedure are matters for which the Member States are responsible, it does not follow that this branch of the law cannot be affected by Community law (see, to that effect, Case 186/87 Cowan [1989] ECR 195, paragraph 19, and Case 203/80 Casati [1981] ECR 2595, paragraph 27).

31 Finally, the Community bodies have not only the right but also the duty to obtain the information necessary to ensure the economical administration of Community resources in fulfilment of the responsibilities conferred upon them in the interest of the Community (see Case 118/83 CMC v Commission [1985] ECR 2325, paragraph 47).

79. According to settled case-law, the Court of Justice will reject outright complaints directed against grounds of a judgment of the General Court included purely for the sake of completeness, since they cannot lead to the judgment’s being set aside and are therefore ineffective (see, inter alia, Case C‑399/08 P C ommission v Deutsche Post [2010] ECR I‑0000, paragraph 75, and Case C‑96/09 P Anheuser-Busch v Budějovický Budvar [2011] ECR I‑0000, paragraph 211 and case-law cited).

39 It is clear, however, from the judgments in Case C-57/93 Vroege [1994] ECR I-4541, paragraphs 20 to 27, Fisscher, cited above, paragraphs 17 to 24, and Case C-246/96 Magorrian and Cunningham v EHSSB and DHSS [1997] ECR I-7153, paragraphs 27 to 35, that the limitation in time of the effects of Article 119 resulting from both the Barber judgment and the Protocol concerns only those kinds of discrimination which employers and pension schemes could reasonably have considered to be permissible owing to the transitional derogations for which Community law provided and which were capable of being applied to occupational pensions (see Case C-435/93 Dietz v Stichting Thuiszorg Rotterdam [1996] ECR I-5223, paragraph 19).

25 WHEN, FURTHERMORE, SUCH AN INTERPRETATION REFLECTS THE GENERAL PRACTICE FOLLOWED BY THE CONTRACTING STATES, IT CAN BE SET ASIDE ONLY IF IT APPEARS INCOMPATIBLE WITH THE WORDING OF THE HEADING CONCERNED OR GOES MANIFESTLY BEYOND THE DISCRETION CONFERRED ON THE CUSTOMS COOPERATION COUNCIL .

29 As a preliminary point, it should be noted 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 CN and in the section or chapter notes (see, judgments in Sysmex Europe, C‑480/13, EU:C:2014:2097, paragraph 29 and the case-law cited; Vario Tek, C‑178/14, EU:C:2015:152, paragraph 21 and the case-law cited, and Amazon EU, C‑58/14, EU:C:2015:385, paragraph 20 and the case-law cited).

13. According to settled case-law, questions on the interpretation of Community law referred by a national court in the factual and legislative context which that court is responsible for defining, and the accuracy of which is not a matter for the Court to determine, enjoy a presumption of relevance. The Court may refuse to rule on a question referred by a national court only where it is quite obvious that the interpretation of Community law that is sought bears no relation to the actual facts of the main action or its purpose, where the problem is hypothetical, or where the Court does not have before it the factual or legal material necessary to give a useful answer to the questions submitted to it (see, to that effect, Joined Cases C‑222/05 to C-225/05 van der Weerd and Others [2007] ECR I-4233, paragraph 22, and the case-law cited).

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).

35. Cette directive définit la notion de «temps de travail» comme toute période durant laquelle le travailleur est au travail, à la disposition de l’employeur et dans l’exercice de son activité ou de ses fonctions, conformément aux législations et/ou aux pratiques nationales. En outre, cette notion doit être appréhendée par opposition à la période de repos, ces deux notions étant exclusives l’une de l’autre (voir, en ce sens, arrêt Jaeger, C‑151/02, EU:C:2003:437, point 48).

51. Furthermore, where, as in the present case, Community law does not lay down any specific sanctions should instances of abuse nevertheless be established, it is incumbent on the national authorities to adopt appropriate measures to deal with such a situation which must be not only proportionate, but also sufficiently effective and a sufficient deterrent to ensure that the provisions adopted pursuant to the framework agreement are fully effective ( Adeneler and Others , paragraph 94).

5 HOWEVER, TO ADMIT THAT IT IS OF NO EFFECT WOULD DEVEST THIS PROVISION OF ITS LEGAL CONTENT .

39. It is only when the grounds for exclusion concerned do not relate to the professional qualities of economic operators, and, therefore, do not fall within that exhaustive list that it is possible to consider whether those grounds may be permissible under the principles or other rules of EU public procurement law (see, to this effect, Fabricom , paragraphs 25 to 36; Michaniki , paragraphs 44 to 69; and Case C-538/07 Assitur [2009] ECR I-4219, paragraphs 21 to 33).

68 In view of all foregoing considerations the reply to be given to the first and fourth questions concerning point 3 of Article 13B(d) of the Sixth Directive must be that this provision is to be interpreted as meaning that transactions concerning transfers and payments include operations carried out by a data-handling centre if those operations are distinct in character and are specific to, and essential for, the exempt transactions. SDC's other functions

36. As regards the scope of Article 135(1)(f) of that directive, the Court has held that transactions in shares and other securities are transactions on the market in marketable securities and that trade in securities involves acts which alter the legal and financial situation as between the parties (see, to that effect, Case C-2/95 SDC [1997] ECR I-3017, paragraphs 72 and 73, and Case C-259/11 DTZ Zadelhoff [2012] ECR, paragraph 22).

17 The Commission is required not to demonstrate exhaustively that there are irregularities in the data submitted by the Member States but to adduce evidence of serious and reasonable doubt on its part regarding the figures submitted by the national authorities. The reason for this mitigation of the burden of proof on the Commission is that, as pointed out above (paragraph 11), it is the State which is best placed to collect and verify the data required for the clearance of EAGGF accounts; consequently, it is for the State to adduce the most detailed and comprehensive evidence that its figures are accurate and, if appropriate, that the Commission' s calculations are incorrect.

16. When the Court, in the exercise of the jurisdiction conferred on it by Article 234 EC, interprets a provision of Community law, it defines the meaning and scope of that provision as it ought to have been understood and applied from its entry into force (see, to this effect, Case 61/79 Denkavit italiana [1980] ECR 1205, paragraph 16; Case C-62/93 BP Supergas [1995] ECR I-1883, paragraph 39; and Case C-453/00 Kühne & Heitz [2004] ECR I-837, paragraph 21). The only circumstances where that is not the case are where, exceptionally, the Court limits the temporal effect of that interpretation in its judgment (see, to this effect, Denkavit italiana , cited above, paragraph 17; Case C-366/99 Griesmar [2001] ECR I-9383, paragraph 74; and, for a recent application of those principles with regard to VAT, Joined Cases C-453/02 and C‑462/02 Linneweber and Akritidis [2005] ECR I-1131, paragraphs 41 to 45).

7 FURTHER, IT IS APPOSITE TO POINT OUT THAT OWING TO THE ALTERATION INTRODUCED INTO ANNEX III OF THE STAFF REGULATIONS BY REGULATION 1473/72 ( OJ NO L 160, P . 1 ) THE INCLUSION OF AN AGE LIMIT HAS BEEN EXPRESSLY MADE OPTIONAL, SO THAT THE ANNULMENT OF THE COMPETITION NOTICE WOULD NOT GIVE THE APPLICANT SATISFACTION .

31. It is in this regard settled case-law that the principle of non-discrimination requires that comparable situations must not be treated differently and that different situations must not be treated in the same way (see, inter alia , Case C-354/95 National Farmers' Union and Others [1997] ECR I-4559, paragraph 61). Such treatment may be justified only if it is based on objective considerations independent of the nationality of the persons concerned and is proportionate to the objective being legitimately pursued (see, inter alia , D'Hoop , paragraph 36).

28 It follows from those observations that the "imperviousness" of a selective distribution system is not a condition of its validity under Community law.

33. It should be recalled that the EEA Agreement was concluded by the European Economic Community and the European Coal and Steel Community, referred to in that agreement as ‘the Community’. Article 300(7) EC provides that ‘agreements concluded under the conditions set out in this article shall be binding on the institutions of the Community and on Member States’. Furthermore, the Court has held that the primacy of international agreements concluded by the Community over provisions of secondary Community legislation means that such provisions must, so far as is possible, be interpreted in a manner that is consistent with those agreements (Case C-61/94 Commission v Germany [1996] ECR I-3989, paragraph 52).

52 When the wording of secondary Community legislation is open to more than one interpretation, preference should be given as far as possible to the interpretation which renders the provision consistent with the Treaty. Likewise, an implementing regulation must, if possible, be given an interpretation consistent with the basic regulation (see Case C-90/92 Dr Tretter v Hauptzollamt Stuttgart-Ost [1993] ECR I-3569, paragraph 11). Similarly, the primacy of international agreements concluded by the Community over provisions of secondary Community legislation means that such provisions must, so far as is possible, be interpreted in a manner that is consistent with those agreements.

38 Secondly, those same courts must ensure that the principle that it is for the victim to prove, through all means of proof generally allowed under national law and, as in the present case, inter alia through the production of serious, specific and consistent evidence, that there is a defect in the vaccine and a causal link, remains intact. This requires the court to safeguard its own freedom of assessment in determining whether such proof has been made out to the requisite legal standard, until such time as, having examined all the evidence adduced by both parties and the arguments exchanged by them, it considers itself in a position to draw a definitive conclusion on the matter, having regard to all the relevant circumstances of the case before it (see, by analogy, judgment of 9 November 1983, San Giorgio, 199/82, EU:C:1983:318, paragraph 14).

39 As regards the importance of that deadline, according to the fifth recital in the preamble to Regulation No 536/93, the regulation lays down strict requirements as regards deadlines for communication so that lessons can be learned from the past, when major delays in the transmission of figures on collections and in payment of the levy prevented the arrangements from being fully effective.

32 With respect to the similar definitions of the terms `regulated profession' and `regulated professional activity' appearing in Article 1(c) and (d) of Directive 89/48, the Court has already held that access to or pursuit of a profession must be regarded as directly governed by legal provisions where the laws, regulations or administrative provisions of the host Member State concerned create a system under which that professional activity is expressly reserved to those who fulfil certain conditions and access to it is prohibited to those who do not fulfil them (Case C-164/94 Aranitis [1996] ECR I-135, paragraph 19, and Case C-234/97 Fernández de Bobadilla [1999] I-4773, paragraph 17). A profession must be regarded as indirectly regulated where there is indirect legal control of access to or pursuit of that profession (see Aranitis, cited above, paragraph 27).

41. Similarly, formal categorisation as a self-employed person under national law does not exclude the possibility that a person may have to be treated as a worker for the purposes of Directive 92/85 if that person’s independence is merely notional, thereby disguising an employment relationship within the meaning of that directive (see, by analogy, Allonby , paragraph 71).

46 In the third place, it must be pointed out that a travel agency may rebut the presumption that it participated in a concerted practice by proving that it publically distanced itself from that practice or reported it to the administrative authorities. In addition, according to the case-law of the Court, in a case such as that at issue in the main proceedings, which does not concern an anticompetitive meeting, public distancing or reporting to the administrative authorities are not the only means of rebutting the presumption that a company has participated in an infringement; other evidence may also be adduced with a view to rebutting that presumption (see, to that effect, judgment in Total Marketing Services v Commission, C‑634/13 P, EU:C:2015:614, paragraphs 23 and 24).

32. Those therapeutic effects have the consequence that, if medicinal products are consumed unnecessarily or incorrectly, they may cause serious harm to health, without the patient being in a position to realise that when they are administered.

31. The VAT Directive, which replaced the Sixth Council Directive 77/388/EEC of 17 May 1977 on the harmonisation of the laws of the Member States relating to turnover taxes — Common system of value added tax: uniform basis of assessment (OJ 1977 L 145, p. 1), includes Title V dealing with the place of taxable transactions. In that title, Chapter 3 relates to the place of supply of services, and Sections 1 and 2 of Chapter 3 lay down the general rules for determining the place of taxation of those supplies and particular provisions relating to specific supplies of services. Like Article 9(2) and (3) of the Sixth Directive 77/388, Articles 44 to 59 of the VAT Directive contain rules which determine the specific places of reference for tax purposes (see judgment in Welmory , C‑605/12, EU:C:2014:2298, paragraphs 37 and 38).

56 In that connection, it follows from settled case-law on the subject of failure to comply with the formalities required to establish the right of residence of an individual enjoying the protection of Community law that, whilst Member States are entitled to make failure to comply with such provisions subject to penalties comparable to those attaching to minor offences committed by their own nationals, they are not entitled to impose a disproportionate penalty that would create an obstacle to that right of residence (see, by analogy, Case 157/79 Regina v Pieck [1980] ECR 2171, paragraph 19, and Case C-265/88 Messner [1989] ECR 4209, paragraph 14).

23. Applying those principles, the Court has found that only actions which derive directly from insolvency proceedings and are closely connected with them are excluded from the scope of Regulation No 44/2001. Consequently, only those actions fall within the scope of Regulation No 1346/2000 (judgment in F-Tex , EU:C:2012:215, paragraphs 23 and 29 and the case-law cited).

28 Next, it should be borne in mind that the Court has consistently held that prohibited discrimination can arise only where comparable situations are treated differently, unless such treatment is objectively justified (see, in particular, Belgium v Commission, cited above, paragraph 131).

49. The letting of immovable property for the purposes of Article 13B(b) of the Sixth Directive essentially involves the landlord of property assigning to the tenant, in return for rent and for an agreed period, the right to occupy his property and to exclude other persons from it (see Case C-409/98 Mirror Group [2001] ECR I-7175, paragraph 31, and Case C-108/99 Cantor Fitzgerald International [2001] ECR I-7257, paragraph 21).

49. If, on the other hand, the verifications to be carried out do not require presentation of the goods, for example where the application for revision envisages only the examination of accounting or contractual documents, a revision is possible in principle.

18. First of all, it must be recalled that, as a German national, Ms Elrick enjoys the status of a citizen of the Union under Article 20(1) TFEU and may therefore rely on the rights conferred on those having that status, including against their Member State of origin (see Case C‑192/05 Tas-Hagen and Tas [2006] ECR I‑10451, paragraph 19; Joined Cases C‑11/06 and C‑12/06 Morgan and Bucher [2007] ECR I‑9161, paragraph 22; and Joined Cases C‑523/11 and C‑585/11 Prinz and Seeberger [2013] ECR I‑0000, paragraph 23 and the case-law cited).

17. The distinction between ‘infringements by object’ and ‘infringements by effect’ arises from the fact that certain forms of collusion between undertakings can be regarded, by their very nature, as being injurious to the proper functioning of normal competition.

50. In order to assess the professional experience of an importer, which is taken into account with regard to the condition relating to the absence of obvious negligence within the meaning of Article 239 of the Customs Code, it is necessary to examine whether or not the operator is a trader whose business activities consist mainly in import and export transactions and whether he had already gained some experience in the conduct of such transactions ( Söhl & Söhlke , paragraph 57, and Common Market Fertilizers v Commission , paragraph 188).

19. En outre, ainsi qu’il a été relevé par la Commission, selon une jurisprudence constante de la Cour, si la transposition d’une directive n’exige pas nécessairement une reprise formelle et textuelle des dispositions de celle-ci dans une disposition légale expresse et spécifique et peut se satisfaire d’un contexte juridique général, il est cependant nécessaire que ce contexte juridique soit suffisamment clair et précis pour que les bénéficiaires soient mis en mesure de connaître la plénitude de leurs droits et, le cas échéant, de s’en prévaloir devant les juridictions nationales (voir, notamment, arrêts du 15 novembre 2001, Commission/Italie, C-49/00, Rec. p. I‑8575, point 21, et du 16 juillet 2009, Commission/Irlande, C‑554/07, non encore publié au recueil, point 60).

41. Finally, so far as concerns the third argument, it is apparent from Joined Cases C‑403/08 and C-429/08 Football Association Premier League and Others [2011] ECR I-0000, paragraphs 76 to 145, that communications to the public by satellite must be capable of being received in all the Member States and that they therefore by definition have a cross-border nature. Furthermore, the communications at issue in the main proceedings display such a nature since they involve Belgian and Netherlands companies, Airfield and Canal Digitaal, and the programme-carrying signals are intended in particular for television viewers residing in Belgium and Luxembourg.

14 The pleas in law and arguments put forward by the Greek Government to justify the regularity of the expenditure correspond essentially to those put forward in Greece v Commission (Case C-46/97) in respect of the clearance of the accounts for 1992. As the Court has rejected those pleas and arguments in paragraphs 4 to 26 of the judgment delivered today in Case C-46/97, they must also be rejected, for the same reasons, in the present case.

26. In that connection, according to settled case-law, the rule of special jurisdiction laid down in Article 5(3) of Regulation No 44/2001 is based on the existence of a particularly close connecting factor between the dispute and the courts of the place where the harmful event occurred or may occur, which justifies the attribution of jurisdiction to those courts for reasons relating to the sound administration of justice and the efficacious conduct of proceedings (see, to that effect, Zuid‑Chemie , paragraph 24, and eDate Advertising and Others , paragraph 40).

34 The answer to the first question must therefore be that the expression `municipal/household waste' referred to under AD 160 in the amber list in Annex III to the Regulation, as amended by Decision 94/721, includes both waste which for the most part consists of waste mentioned on the green list in Annex II to the Regulation, mixed with other categories of waste appearing on that list, and waste mentioned on the green list mixed with a small quantity of materials not referred to on that list. The second question, part (a)

30 Furthermore, a retrospective exemption of the kind provided for by the Spanish legislation would be contrary to the purpose of the relevant Community provisions. It is settled case-law that the very wording of Article 28(3)(b) of the Sixth Directive precludes the introduction of new exemptions (Case 73/85 Kerrutt [1986] ECR 2219, paragraph 17, and Case C-74/91 Commission v Germany [1992] ECR I-5437, paragraph 15).

16 It should be pointed out in that respect that the fact that the purchaser did not pay the price agreed direct to the supplier but through the intermediary of the organization issuing the card, which retained a percentage calculated on the price, cannot change the taxable amount. That deduction made by the card-issuing organization represents the consideration for a service rendered by it to the supplier. That service represents an independent transaction in respect of which the purchaser is a third party.

16 In any event, according to settled case-law (Case 8/74 Dassonville [1974] ECR 837, paragraph 5), the prohibition laid down in Article 30 of the Treaty covers all trading rules enacted by Member States which are capable of hindering directly or indirectly, actually or potentially, intra-Community trade.

70. However, neither Article 190 EC nor the 1976 Act defines expressly and precisely who are to be entitled to the right to vote and to stand as a candidate in elections to the European Parliament. In themselves, those provisions do not exclude, therefore, a person who is not a citizen of the Union, such as a QCC resident in Gibraltar, from being entitled to the right to vote and stand for election. However, it must be ascertained whether there is, as the Kingdom of Spain submits, a clear link between citizenship of the Union and the right to vote and stand for election which requires that that right be always limited to citizens of the Union.

39. Therefore, it must be accepted that, where there is uncertainty as to the existence or extent of risks to human health, the institutions, applying the principle of precaution and preventive action, may take protective measures without having to wait until the reality and seriousness of those risks become fully apparent (see, to that effect, National Farmers’ Union and Others, cited above, paragraph 63).

49 However, it is for the referring court, taking account of the indications given by the Court of Justice, to verify, in an overall assessment of the circumstances surrounding the grant of the new licences, whether the restrictions imposed by the Member State concerned satisfy the conditions laid down in the Court’s case-law concerning their proportionality (see, to that effect, judgment of 12 June 2014, Digibet and Albers, C‑156/13, EU:C:2014:1756, paragraph 40 and the case-law cited).

61. However, a particular problem arises where the principle of compatible interpretation is applied to criminal matters. As the Court has also held, that principle finds its limits in the general principles of law which form part of the Community legal system and, in particular, in the principles of legal certainty and non-retroactivity. In that regard, the Court has held on several occasions that a directive cannot, of itself and independently of a national law adopted by a Member State for its implementation, have the effect of determining or aggravating the liability in criminal law of persons who act in contravention of the provisions of that directive (see, in particular, Pretore di Salò , paragraph 20; Case C-168/95 Arcaro [1996] ECR I-4705, paragraph 37, and Joined Cases C-74/95 and C-129/95 X [1996] ECR I-6609, paragraph 24).

39 The condition that every staff member of a security firm or internal security service must carry an identification card issued by the Belgian Minister for the Interior must also be regarded as a restriction on the freedom to provide services. The formalities involved in obtaining such an identification card are likely to make the provision of services across frontiers more difficult.

29. However, in implementing European Union law, the national court must also respect the requirements of effective judicial protection of the rights that individuals derive from European Union law, as guaranteed by Article 47 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. Among those requirements is the principle of audi alteram partem , as part of the rights of defence and which is binding on that court, in particular when it decides a dispute on a ground that it has identified of its own motion (see, to that effect, Case C-89/08 P Commission v Ireland and Others [2009] ECR I-11245, paragraphs 50 and 54).

32. Although Article 4(c) of Directive 90/388 does not lay down a period within which the obligation to rebalance tariffs must be fulfilled, the fact remains that several elements of Directive 96/19 state that the rebalancing of tariffs must be carried out at a sustained rate in order to facilitate the opening of the telecommunications market to competition. Thus, as the Advocate General stated in paragraphs 58 to 60 of his Opinion, it is clear from reading the 20th and 5th recitals in the preamble to Directive 96/19 together with Article 4(c) of Directive 90/388 that the Member States were bound to phase out the restrictions on tariff rebalancing as soon as possible after the entry into force of Directive 96/19 and at the latest by 1 January 1998. The Member States with less developed networks or with very small networks were to adopt a detailed timetable for the implementation of their obligation.

21 At paragraph 20 of that judgment, the Court held that the principle of State liability for loss and damage caused to individuals as a result of breaches of Community law for which the State can be held responsible is inherent in the system of the Treaty and that the conditions under which State liability gives rise to a right to reparation depend on the nature of the breach of Community law giving rise to the loss and damage. The Court also held, at paragraph 21, that individuals who have suffered damage have a right to reparation where three conditions are met: the rule of law infringed must have been intended to confer rights on individuals; the breach must be sufficiently serious; and there must be a direct causal link between the breach of the obligation resting on the State and the damage sustained by the individuals.

25 The fact that, pursuant to the provisions of Directive 65/65, marketing authorisations were granted for the products at issue in the main proceedings by the competent French authorities and, consequently, that those products are regarded as medicinal products under French legislation does not therefore necessarily mean that they must be classified as pharmaceutical products in the CN.

17. Article 17(5) of the Sixth Directive lays down the rules applicable to the right to deduct VAT where the VAT relates to goods or services used by the taxable person ‘both for transactions covered by paragraphs 2 and 3, in respect of which value added tax is deductible, and for transactions in respect of which value added tax is not deductible’. In such a case, the first subparagraph of Article 17(5) of the Sixth Directive provides that only such proportion of the VAT is deductible as is attributable to the former taxable transactions ( Abbey National , paragraph 37, and Case C‑16/00 Cibo Participations [2001] ECR I‑6663, paragraph 34).

44. The fact remains that, as far as the exercise of the power of taxation so allocated is concerned, the Member States may not, having regard to the principle referred to in paragraph 19 of this judgment, disregard Community rules ( Saint-Gobain ZN , paragraph 58). In particular, such an allocation of fiscal jurisdiction does not permit Member States to introduce discriminatory measures which are contrary to the Community rules ( Bouanich , paragraph 50).

27. Article 7(1) of Directive 96/9 entitles the maker of a database which required substantial investment from a quantitative or qualitative point of view to prevent acts of extraction in respect of all or a substantial part of the contents of that database. Furthermore, Article 7(5) is intended to enable that maker to prevent acts of repeated and systematic extraction in respect of an insubstantial part of the contents of that database, which, by their cumulative effect, would lead to the reconstitution of the database as a whole or, at least, of a substantial part of it, without the authorisation of the maker, and which would therefore seriously prejudice the investment of that maker just as the extractions referred to in Article 7(1) of the directive would (see The British Horseracing Board and Others , paragraphs 86 to 89).

56. As regards the temporary posting of workers to another Member State so that they can carry out construction work or public works in the context of services provided by their employer, it is clear from the settled case‑law of the Court that Articles 49 EC and 50 EC preclude a Member State from prohibiting a person providing services established in another Member State from moving freely on its territory with all his staff and also preclude that Member State from making the movement of staff in question subject to more restrictive conditions. To impose such conditions on the person providing services established in another Member State discriminates against that person in relation to his competitors established in the host country who are able to use their own staff without restrictions, and moreover affects his ability to provide the service (Case C‑113/89 Rush Portuguesa [1990] ECR I‑1417, paragraph 12).

34 Although Directive 2008/48 does not specifically define the concept of ‘charge’, it is important to note that, in accordance with Article 3(g) of that directive, the total cost of the credit to the consumer covers all the costs which he is required to pay in connection with the credit agreement and which are known to the creditor (see judgment of 21 April 2016, Radlinger and Radlingerová, C‑377/14, EU:C:2016:283, paragraph 84).

25. None the less, for the purpose of applying those criteria, the relevant public’s perception is not necessarily the same in the case of a three-dimensional mark, which consists of the appearance of the product itself, as it is in the case of a word or figurative mark, which consists of a sign unrelated to the appearance of the products it denotes. Average consumers are not in the habit of making assumptions about the origin of products on the basis of their shape or the shape of their packaging in the absence of any graphic or word element, and it could therefore prove more difficult to establish distinctiveness in relation to such a three-dimensional mark than in relation to a word or figurative mark (see, in particular, Henkel v OHIM , paragraph 38, Mag Instrument v OHIM , paragraph 30, and Deutsche SiSi-Werke v OHIM , paragraph 28).

24 In so far as the waste gases were combusted by electricity generators, the corresponding emissions were not taken into account when establishing the maximum annual quantity of allowances (judgment of 28 April 2016, Borealis Polyolefine and Others, C‑191/14, C‑192/14, C‑295/14, C‑389/14 and C‑391/14 to C‑393/14, EU:C:2016:311, paragraph 74).

16 Where the proprietor of a trade mark is prohibited from marketing products under that trade mark, traders who wish to market products under the trade mark in question may obtain those products only by importing them. In those circumstances, an injunction prohibiting the marketing of those products amounts, in practice, to an impediment to their importation and therefore constitutes an obstacle to intra-Community trade.

63 It is clear from Article 168a of the Treaty and Article 51 of the EC Statute of the Court of Justice that an appeal may be based only on grounds relating to the infringement of rules of law, to the exclusion of any appraisal of the facts. The Court of First Instance has exclusive jurisdiction, first, to establish the facts except where the substantive inaccuracy of its findings is apparent from the documents submitted to it and, second, to assess those facts (see, in particular, Deere v Commission, cited above, paragraph 21, and New Holland Ford v Commission, cited above, paragraph 25).

51. In a number of cases, the assessment of those factors will demonstrate that there is much uncertainty, in science and in practice, in that regard. Such uncertainty, which is inseparable from the precautionary principle, affects the scope of the Member State’s discretion and thus also the manner in which the precautionary principle is applied.

50. Proceedings concerning State aid may be commenced before national courts requiring those courts to interpret and apply the concept of aid contained in Article 87(1) EC, in particular in order to determine whether State aid introduced without observance of the preliminary examination procedure provided for in Article 88(3) EC ought to have been subject to this procedure (Case 78/76 Steinike & Weinlig [1977] ECR 595, paragraph 14, and Case C-354/90 Fédération nationale du commerce extérieur des produits alimentaires and Syndicat national des négociants et transformateurs de saumon [1991] ECR I-5505, paragraph 10). Similarly, in order to be able to determine whether a State measure established without taking account of the preliminary examination procedure laid down by Article 6 of the third code should or should not be made subject to that procedure, a national court may have occasion to interpret the concept of aid referred to in Article 4(c) of the ECSC Treaty and Article 1 of the third code (see, by analogy, Case C-390/98 Banks [2001] ECR I-6117, paragraph 71).

42. It should be noted that Member States’ margin of discretion in choosing the most suitable territories for classification as SPAs concerns the application of ornithological criteria for identifying the most suitable territories for conservation of the species in question (see, to that effect, Commission v Netherlands , paragraph 61).

37 However, the Community system of VAT is the result of a gradual harmonisation of national laws in the context of Articles 99 and 100 of the EC Treaty (now Articles 93 EC and 94 EC). As the Court has repeatedly stated, this harmonisation, as brought about by successive directives and in particular by the Sixth Directive, is still only partial (see Case C-165/88 ORO Amsterdam Beheer and Concerto v Inspecteur der Omzetbelasting [1989] ECR 4081, paragraph 21).

21 On the whole the Community system of VAT is the result of a gradual harmonization of national legislation pursuant to Articles 99 and 100 of the Treaty . The Court has consistently held that this harmonization, as brought about by successive directives and in particular by the Sixth Directive, is still only partial .

40 Thirdly, in matters relating to contracts of employment, interpretation of Article 5(1) of the Brussels Convention must take account of the concern to afford proper protection to the employee as the weaker of the contracting parties from the social point of view. Such protection is best assured if disputes relating to a contract of employment fall within the jurisdiction of the courts of the place where the employee discharges his obligations towards his employer, since that is the place where it is least expensive for the employee to commence or defend court proceedings (see, inter alia, Mulox IBC, paragraphs 18 and 19, and Rutten, paragraph 17).

48 Regulation No 44/2001 is based on the fundamental idea that individuals are required, in principle, to use all the legal remedies made available by the law of the Member State of origin. Save where specific circumstances make it too difficult or impossible to make use of the legal remedies in the Member State of origin, the individuals concerned must avail themselves of all the legal remedies available in that Member State with a view to preventing a breach of public policy before it occurs (see judgment of 16 July 2015 in Diageo Brands, C‑681/13, EU:C:2015:471, paragraph 64).

20 The very purpose of the cooperation procedure, which is to increase the involvement of the European Parliament in the legislative process of the Community, would thus be jeopardized. As the Court stated in its judgments in Case 138/79 Roquette Frères v Council [1980] ECR 3333 and Case 139/79 Maizena v Council [1980] ECR 3393, paragraph 34, that participation reflects a fundamental democratic principle that the peoples should take part in the exercise of power through the intermediary of a representative assembly.

39 Consequently, in accordance with the settled case-law of the Court, pursuant to Article 2 of Directive 2004/18, a contracting authority must comply strictly with the criteria which it has itself established (see, inter alia, judgment of 10 October 2013 in Manova, C‑336/12, EU:C:2013:647, paragraph 40, and judgment of 6 November 2014 in Cartiera dell’Adda, C‑42/13, EU:C:2014:2345, paragraphs 42 and 43).

28. Thirdly, it should be borne in mind that the Member States may indeed adopt measures in order to ensure the correct levying and collection of the tax and for the prevention of fraud (see Stadeco , paragraph 39). In particular, the condition that an incorrect invoice must be corrected before a refund of the VAT invoiced in error can be obtained can, in principle, ensure the elimination of the risk of loss of tax revenue (see Stadeco , paragraph 42).

26. Therefore, the operator of a spa establishment carries out a communication when it deliberately transmits protected works, by intentionally distributing a signal through television or radio sets, in the rooms of the patients of that establishment (see, to that effect, Football Association Premier League and Others , paragraph 196, and Case C‑162/10 Phonographic Performance (Ireland) [2012] ECR, paragraph 40).

22. It is sufficient, in that regard, to point out, as did Tankreederei and the Commission, that, according to the information provided by the national court, Tankreederei’s business activities relating to the refuelling services provided in the ports of Antwerp and Amsterdam by means of the vessels in respect of which the tax credit for investments is sought are exclusively taxable in Luxembourg. Consequently, the right of the Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg to exercise its taxing powers in relation to those activities would in no way be jeopardised if the condition referred to in paragraph 11 of this judgment did not exist (see, to that effect, Jobra , paragraphs 32 and 33).

12 IT FOLLOWS THAT IT IS FOR THE INSTITUTION OF THE PLACE OF RESIDENCE TO DETERMINE THE COMMENCEMENT AND DURATION OF INCAPACITY FOR WORK AND THE COMPETENT INSTITUTION MERELY RETAINS THE POSSIBILITY OF HAVING THE WORKER EXAMINED BY A DOCTOR OF ITS OWN CHOICE ( ARTICLE 18 ( 5 )*).

22 In that regard, it should be borne in mind that the objective of Regulation No 2038/1999, as well as that of Regulation No 1260/2001, is to establish a system of self-financing of the costs of disposing of surpluses, which consists of ensuring, in a fair yet efficient way, that the producers themselves meet those costs in full. Consequently, the method of calculation adopted must not lead, in practice, to fixing a priori the total loss at an amount greater than that of the costs linked to refunds in relation to the disposal of Community production surpluses (see, to that effect, judgments of 8 May 2008, Zuckerfabrik Jülich and Others, C‑5/06 and C‑23/06 to C‑36/06, EU:C:2008:260, paragraphs 44, 57 and 60, and of 27 September 2012, Zuckerfabrik Jülich and Others, C‑113/10, C‑147/10 and C‑234/10, EU:C:2012:591, paragraph 46).

52 As the Advocate General has pointed out at point 58 of his Opinion, a standard fee by its very nature exceeds the actual cost of the measures which it is intended to finance in certain cases and is lower than that cost in other cases.

63. In that context, it is for the national court to determine in each individual case, on the basis of the facts of the case, whether a given transaction in respect of property results in the transfer of the right to dispose of the property as owner within the meaning of Article 5(1) of the Sixth Directive (see, to that effect, Shipping and Forwarding Enterprise Safe , paragraph 13).

42. It should be noted in that regard that, in respect of capital from revenue of Austrian origin, the tax legislation at issue establishes no direct link between the taxation of company profits by means of corporation tax and the tax advantages enjoyed, in relation to income tax, by taxpayers living in Austria. In those circumstances, the level of the taxation of companies established outside Austrian territory cannot justify a refusal to grant those same financial advantages to persons receiving revenue from capital paid by those latter companies.

48. On that point, it should be remembered that, according to consistent case-law, in the absence of any unifying or harmonising Community measures, Member States retain the power to define the criteria for taxing income and wealth with a view to eliminating double taxation, by means of conventions if necessary (Case C‑290/04 FKP Scorpio Konzertproduktionen [2006] ECR I‑9461, paragraph 54; Case C‑374/04 Test Claimants in Class IV of the ACT Group Litigation [2006] ECR I‑11673, paragraph 52; Case C‑231/05 Oy AA [2007] ECR I‑6373, paragraph 52).

358. That freezing measure constitutes a temporary precautionary measure which is not supposed to deprive those persons of their property. It does, however, undeniably entail a restriction of the exercise of Mr Kadi’s right to property that must, moreover, be classified as considerable, having regard to the general application of the freezing measure and the fact that it has been applied to him since 20 October 2001.

60. First, as regards the balanced allocation between Member States of the power to tax, it should be recalled that such a justification may be accepted, in particular, where the system in question is designed to prevent conduct capable of jeopardising the right of a Member State to exercise its tax jurisdiction in relation to activities carried out in its territory (see, inter alia, Marks & Spencer , paragraph 46; Case C‑347/04 Rewe Zentralfinanz [2007] ECR I‑2647, paragraph 42; Oy AA , paragraph 54; and Aberdeen Property Fininvest Alpha , paragraph 66).

61. À cet égard, il convient de rappeler qu’il résulte des articles 256 TFUE, 58, premier alinéa, du statut de la Cour et 112, paragraphe 1, sous c), du règlement de procédure de cette dernière qu’un pourvoi doit indiquer de façon précise les éléments critiqués de la décision du Tribunal dont l’annulation est demandée ainsi que les arguments juridiques qui soutiennent de manière spécifique cette demande (voir, notamment, arrêts du 23 avril 2009, AEPI/Commission, C-425/07 P, Rec. p. I-3205, point 25, et du 9 juin 2011, Evropaïki Dynamiki/BCE, C‑401/09 P, non encore publié au Recueil, point 55).

21 In that regard, it should be borne in mind that, in accordance with the Court’s settled case-law, in the preliminary ruling procedure under Article 267 TFEU, based on a clear separation of functions between the national courts and the Court of Justice, the national court alone has jurisdiction to find and assess the facts in the dispute in the main proceedings. In that context, the Court is empowered to rule solely on the interpretation or validity of EU law in the light of the factual and legal situation as described by the referring court, in order to provide that court with such guidance as will assist it in resolving the dispute before it (judgments of 28 July 2016, Kratzer, C‑423/15, EU:C:2016:604, paragraph 27, and of 27 April 2017, A-Rosa Flussschiff, C‑620/15, EU:C:2017:309, paragraph 35).

10 THE SUBMISSION MUST BE REJECTED .

64. It is settled case‑law that, in the context of an action brought on the basis of Article 226 EC, the reasoned opinion and the action must set out the Commission’s complaints coherently and precisely in order that the Member State and the Court may appreciate exactly the scope of the infringement of European Union law complained of, a condition which is necessary in order to enable the Member State to avail itself of its right to defend itself and the Court to determine whether there is a breach of obligations as alleged (see, in particular, Commission v United Kingdom , paragraph 18, and Case C‑66/06 Commission v Ireland , paragraph 31).

227. It follows that the Habitats Directive requires that any plan or project undergo an appropriate assessment of its implications if it cannot be excluded on the basis of objective information that that plan or project will have a significant effect on the site concerned.

71 Furthermore, it is settled case-law that, in the absence of Community legislation governing a matter, it is for the domestic legal system of each Member State to lay down the detailed procedural rules governing actions for recovery of sums unduly paid, on the understanding however that such rules may not be less favourable than those governing similar domestic actions and may in no circumstances be so framed as to render virtually impossible or excessively difficult the exercise of rights conferred by Community law (see, most recently, Peterbroeck, cited above, paragraph 12).

7 IT IS CLEAR FROM ARTICLES 5 AND 7 OF THE STAFF REGULATIONS THAT AN OFFICIAL HAS THE RIGHT TO EXPECT THAT THE DUTIES WHICH ARE ASSIGNED TO HIM SHOULD AS A WHOLE BE IN KEEPING WITH THE POST WHICH CORRESPONDS TO THE GRADE WHICH HE OCCUPIES IN THE SCALE OF POSTS . HOWEVER, FOR A MEASURE FOR THE REORGANIZATION OF DEPARTMENTS TO AFFECT THAT RIGHT ADVERSELY, IT IS NOT SUFFICIENT THAT IT SHOULD BRING ABOUT A CHANGE IN OR EVEN ANY DIMINUTION OF THE OFFICIAL' S RESPONSIBILITIES, BUT IT IS NECESSARY THAT, TAKEN TOGETHER, HIS NEW RESPONSIBILITIES SHOULD FALL CLEARLY SHORT OF THOSE CORRESPONDING TO HIS GRADE AND POST, TAKING ACCOUNT OF THEIR CHARACTER, THEIR IMPORTANCE AND THEIR SCOPE .

33 As the Court stated in paragraphs 16 and 17 of its judgment in Case C-127/92 Enderby [1993] ECR I-5535, a situation may only reveal a prima facie case of indirect discrimination if the statistics describing that situation are valid, that is to say, if they cover enough individuals, do not illustrate purely fortuitous or short-term phenomena, and appear, in general, to be significant.

35 Consequently, it must be held that, by precluding by regulation or administrative practice on the grounds of their nationality employed or self-employed workers from other Member States and the members of their families from being attributed large-family status for the purpose of the award of special benefits for such families and from being awarded family allowances, the Hellenic Republic has failed to fulfil its obligations under Articles 48 and 52 of the EC Treaty, Article 7 of Regulation No 1612/68, Article 7 of Regulation No 1251/70, Article 7 of Directive 75/34 and Article 3 of Regulation No 1408/71.

52 That interpretation is, furthermore, confirmed by the objective of Decision No 1/80 which, according to the third recital in its preamble, seeks to improve, in the social field, the treatment accorded to workers and members of their families in relation to the arrangements introduced by Decision No 2/76 which the Council of Association set up by the Agreement establishing an Association between the European Economic Community and Turkey adopted on 20 December 1976. The provisions of Section 1 of Chapter II of Decision No 1/80, of which Article 6 forms part, thus constitute a further stage in securing freedom of movement for workers on the basis of Articles 48, 49 and 50 of the Treaty (see Bozkurt, paragraphs 14, 19 and 20, Tetik, paragraph 20, Günaydin, paragraphs 20 and 21, and Ertanir, paragraphs 20 and 21).

18. The proper conduct of that procedure constitutes an essential guarantee required by the FEU Treaty not only in order to protect the rights of the Member State concerned, but also to ensure that any contentious procedure will have a clearly defined dispute as its subject-matter ( Commission v Germany , paragraph 46; Case C‑442/06 Commission v Italy [2008] ECR I‑2413, paragraph 22).

56. Accordingly, the EU judicature must carry out its review of legality on the basis of the evidence adduced by the applicant in support of the pleas in law put forward and it cannot use the Commission’s margin of discretion as regards the assessment of that evidence as a basis for dispensing with the conduct of an in‑depth review of the law and of the facts (see, to that effect, Chalkor v Commission EU:C:2011:815, paragraph 62, and Schindler Holding and Others v Commission EU:C:2013:522, paragraph 37).

27 IF THE MONITORING OF BANKS THROUGH SUPERVISION WITHIN A MEMBER STATE AND THE EXCHANGING OF INFORMATION BY THE COMPETENT AUTHORITIES IS TO FUNCTION PROPERLY , IT IS NECESSARY TO PROTECT PROFESSIONAL SECRECY . THE DISCLOSURE OF CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION FOR WHATEVER PURPOSE MIGHT HAVE DAMAGING CONSEQUENCES NOT ONLY FOR THE CREDIT INSTITUTION DIRECTLY CONCERNED BUT ALSO FOR THE BANKING SYSTEM IN GENERAL . CONSEQUENTLY , IF THERE WAS NO DUTY TO KEEP CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION SECRET , THE OBLIGATORY EXCHANGE OF INFORMATION BETWEEN THE COMPETENT AUTHORITIES MIGHT BE JEOPARDIZED BECAUSE THE AUTHORITY OF A MEMBER STATE COULD NOT BE SURE THAT THE CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION IT PROVIDES TO AN AUTHORITY IN ANOTHER MEMBER STATE WILL IN PRINCIPLE REMAIN CONFIDENTIAL .

24. In that regard, it is appropriate to bear in mind settled case-law, in accordance with which, 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 CN and in the section or chapter notes (see, inter alia, Case C‑142/06 Olicom [2007] ECR I‑6675, paragraph 16, and Joined Cases C‑362/07 and C‑363/07 Kip Europe and Others [2008] ECR I‑0000, paragraph 26).

Selon une jurisprudence constante, la violation du principe d’égalité de traitement du fait d’un traitement différencié présuppose que les situations visées sont comparables eu égard à l’ensemble des éléments qui les caractérisent (arrêt Arcelor Atlantique et Lorraine e.a., C‑127/07, EU:C:2008:728, point 25).

17 It must be borne in mind that the Court has consistently held (see, for example, judgment in Case 305/87 Commission v Hellenic Republic [1989] ECR 1461, paragraph 13) that Article 7 applies independently only to situations governed by Community law in regard to which the Treaty lays down no specific prohibition of discrimination.

32. As a preliminary point, it ought to be noted that estimated consumption for the coming year is one of two elements which the institutions must take into account in determining whether a situation of deficit or of surplus is to be foreseen for a particular area. As a matter of fact, there is a deficit for the purposes of Regulation No 1785/81 when total available production falls short of consumption (see Case C-289/97 Eridania [2000] ECR I-5409, paragraph 46, and Italy v Council , paragraph 76).

39. However, the concept of aid does not encompass measures creating different treatment of undertakings in relation to charges where that difference is attributable to the nature and general scheme of the system of charges in question (see, in particular, Case C-351/98 Spain v Commission [2002] ECR I-8031, paragraph 42, and Case C-159/01 Netherlands v Commission [2004] ECR I-0000, paragraph 42).

40 A system of that kind cannot therefore function properly unless the procedures for administrative cooperation are strictly complied with. However, such cooperation is excluded with the authorities of an entity such as that established in the northern part of Cyprus, which is recognized neither by the Community nor by the Member States; the only Cypriot State they recognize is the Republic of Cyprus.

52 It should, however, be observed that the question of the conclusions to be drawn in the main proceedings from the inapplicability of the second paragraph of Article 4 of Decree No 92-377 as regards the severity of the sanction under the applicable national law, such as nullity or unenforceability of the contract between Sapod and Eco-Emballages, is a question governed by national law, in particular as regards the rules and principles of contract law which limit or adjust that sanction in order to render its severity proportionate to the particular defect found. However, those rules and principles may not be less favourable than those governing similar domestic actions (principle of equivalence) and may not be framed in such a way as to render impossible in practice the exercise of rights conferred by Community law (principle of effectiveness) (see, inter alia, Case 33/76 Rewe v Landwirtschaftskammer für das Saarland [1976] ECR 1989, paragraph 5, and Joined Cases C-52/99 and C-53/99 Camorotto and Vignone [2001] ECR I-1395, paragraph 21).

36. Furthermore, as Shield Mark, the intervening Governments and the Commission have stated, sound signs are not by nature incapable of distinguishing the goods or services of one undertaking from those of other undertakings.

71. It should be noted in that regard that the right to a refund of charges levied in a Member State in breach of rules of EU law is the consequence and complement of the rights conferred on individuals by provisions of EU law as interpreted by the Court (see, inter alia, Case 199/82 San Giorgio [1983] ECR 3595, paragraph 12, and Joined Cases C‑397/98 and C‑410/98 Metallgesellschaft and Others [2001] ECR I‑1727, paragraph 84). The Member State is therefore required in principle to repay charges levied in breach of EU law (Joined Cases C-192/95 to C-218/95 Comateb and Others [1997] ECR I-165, paragraph 20; Metallgesellschaft and Others , paragraph 84; Case C‑147/01 Weber’s Wine World and Others [2003] ECR I‑11365, paragraph 93; and Test Claimants in the FII Group Litigation , paragraph 202).

19. It follows, in the Commission’s view, that the Council does not have the power to adopt a decision on the basis of the third subparagraph of Article 88(2) EC where an aid has been declared incompatible with the common market by a Commission decision. Nor, to that extent, did the Council have the power to override the effects of such a decision, by authorising the grant of aids designed to compensate the beneficiaries of the aid declared incompatible for the repayment which that decision obliged them to make.

44. It follows that, if the transaction at issue in the main proceedings is categorised as a ‘service contract’ within the meaning of Directive 2004/17, such a contract must, in principle, be concluded in accordance with the procedures laid down in Articles 31 and 32 thereof. On the other hand, under Article 18 of that directive, if that transaction is categorised as a service concession, the directive is not applicable to it. In such circumstances, the awarding of the concession remains subject to the fundamental rules of the Treaty, in general, and to the principles of equal treatment and of non-discrimination on the ground of nationality, and the concomitant obligation of transparency, in particular (see, to that effect, Case C‑324/98 Telaustria and Telefonadress [2000] ECR I‑10745, paragraphs 60 to 62; Case C‑231/03 Coname [2005] ECR I‑7287, paragraphs 16 to 19; Case C‑458/03 Parking Brixen [2005] ECR I‑8585, paragraphs 46 to 49; and Case C‑324/07 Coditel Brabant [2008] ECR I‑0000, paragraph 25).

26 The competent authority in the Member State of importation must also verify that the two proprietary medicinal products, if not identical in all respects, have at least been manufactured according to the same formulation, using the same active ingredient, and that they also have the same therapeutic effects.

39. Other directives provide that the Member States are to take the necessary measures to ensure that certain objectives formulated in general and unquantifiable terms are attained, whilst leaving the Member States some discretion as to the nature of the measures to be taken (see, in that regard, Case C‑365/97 Commission v Italy (the ‘San Rocco’ case) [1999] ECR I‑7773, paragraphs 67 and 68, and Case C‑60/01 Commission v France , paragraph 27).

36. Par ailleurs, selon la jurisprudence de la Cour, il incombe à la Commission, dans le cadre d’une telle procédure, de fournir à la Cour les éléments nécessaires pour déterminer l’état d’exécution par un État membre d’un arrêt en manquement. Dès lors que la Commission a fourni suffisamment d’éléments faisant apparaître la persistance du manquement, il appartient à l’État membre concerné de contester cette affirmation de manière substantielle et détaillée, ainsi que d’apporter la preuve de la cessation de l’infraction (voir arrêt Commission/Grèce, C‑369/07, EU:C:2009:428, points 74 et 75 ainsi que jurisprudence citée).

35. First, such rules must make provision for a procedure enabling economic operators to have a nutrient included on the national list of authorised substances. The procedure must be one which is readily accessible and can be completed within a reasonable time, and, if it leads to a refusal, the decision of refusal must be open to challenge before the courts (see to that effect Case C-344/90 Commission v France [1992] ECR I-4719, paragraph 9, and today ' s judgment in Case C-24/00 Commission v France [2004] ECR I-0000, paragraph 26).

45 However, the Court of Justice has jurisdiction under Article 225 EC to review the legal characterisation of those facts by the Court of First Instance and the legal conclusions it has drawn from them (see Case C-7/95 P Deere v Commission [1998] ECR I-3111, paragraph 21). Furthermore, the question whether the grounds of a judgment of the Court of First Instance are contradictory or inadequate is a question of law which is amenable, as such, to judicial review on appeal (Case C-401/96 P Somaco v Commission [1998] ECR I-2587, paragraph 53).

35. It should also be remembered that the interpretation which, in the exercise of the jurisdiction conferred upon it by Article 234 EC, the Court gives to a rule of Community law clarifies and defines, where necessary, the meaning and scope of that rule as it must be, or ought to have been, understood and applied from the time of its coming into force (see, inter alia, Case 61/79 Denkavit italiana [1980] ECR 1205, paragraph 16; Case C-50/96 Deutsche Telekom [2000] ECR I-743, paragraph 43; and Kühne & Heitz , paragraph 21). In other words, a preliminary ruling does not create or alter the law, but is purely declaratory, with the consequence that in principle it takes effect from the date on which the rule interpreted entered into force (see, to this effect, Case C-137/94 Richardson [1995] ECR I‑3407, paragraph 33).

23. À cet égard, il convient de rappeler que, si les conclusions contenues dans la requête ne sauraient en principe être étendues au-delà des manquements allégués dans le dispositif de l’avis motivé et dans la lettre de mise en demeure, il n’en reste pas moins que, lorsqu’un changement du droit communautaire intervient au cours de la procédure précontentieuse, la Commission est recevable à faire constater un manquement aux obligations qui trouvent leur origine dans la version initiale d’un acte communautaire, par la suite modifiée ou abrogée, qui ont été maintenues par de nouvelles dispositions. En revanche, l’objet du litige ne saurait être étendu à des obligations résultant des nouvelles dispositions qui ne trouveraient pas leur équivalence dans la version initiale de l’acte concerné, sous peine de constituer une violation des formes substantielles de la régularité de la procédure constatant le manquement (voir arrêts du 9 novembre 1999, Commission/Italie, C‑365/97, Rec. p. I‑7773, points 36 et 39, ainsi que du 12 juin 2003, Commission/Italie, C‑363/00, Rec. p. I‑5767, point 22).

58 Moreover, what the applicant is required to do in the context of a legal challenge is to identify the impugned elements of the contested decision, to formulate grounds of challenge in that regard and to adduce evidence — direct or circumstantial — to demonstrate that its objections are well founded (see, to that effect, judgment of 8 December 2011, KME Germany and Others v Commission , C‑272/09 P, EU:C:2011:810, paragraph 105).

28. It should also be recalled that the HS Explanatory Notes are an important means of ensuring the uniform application of the Common Customs Tariff and, as such, may be regarded as useful aids to its interpretation (see, to that effect, Case C‑11/93 Siemens Nixdorf [1994] ECR I‑1945, paragraph 12; Case C‑15/05 Kawasaki Motors Europe [2006] ECR I‑3657, paragraph 36; and Pacific World and FDD International , paragraph 29).

77. In that regard, it is settled case-law that the Treaty rules governing freedom of movement for persons and the measures adopted to implement them cannot be applied to activities which have no factor linking them with any of the situations governed by Community law and which are confined in all relevant respects within a single Member State (Case C‑212/06 Government of the French Community and Walloon Government [2008] ECR I‑0000, paragraph 33).

35 On that point it should be noted, as the Commission was right to point out, that where the claim is for compensation, the condition laid down by the disputed rule concerns access to a form of pay to which Article 119 and Directive 75/117 apply.

17 Lastly, even if a Member State's breach of obligations is remedied after the expiry of the time-limit prescribed by the reasoned opinion, there is still an interest in pursuing the action in order to establish the basis for liability which a Member State may incur as a result of its breach of obligations with regard to other Member States, the Community and individuals (see, inter alia, Case C-29/90 Commission v Greece [1992] ECR I-1971, paragraph 12).

51. If the application is accepted, they re-examine the declaration and assess whether the declarant’s claims are well founded, in the light of the facts notified.

30. It is true that in a number of cases brought before it the Court of Justice has held that those liable to pay a charge cannot rely on the argument that the exemption enjoyed by other businesses constitutes State aid in order to avoid payment of that charge or to obtain reimbursement (see, in particular, Banks , paragraph 80, and Distribution Casino France , paragraphs 42 and 44, and Joined Cases C-393/04 and C-41/05 Air Liquide [2006] ECR I-0000, paragraph 43).

38. The Court concluded, on that basis, that Directive 2006/112 precludes a national practice whereby the tax authority refuses a taxable person the right to deduct VAT on the ground that the issuer of the invoice relating to the services supplied acted improperly, without that authority establishing, on the basis of objective evidence, that the taxable person concerned knew, or ought to have known, that the transaction relied on as a basis for the right to deduct was connected with fraud committed by the issuer of the invoice or by another trader acting earlier in the chain of supply ( Mahagében and Dávid , paragraph 50).

25 It follows from the judgment of the Court in Case 94/84 ONEM v Deak [1985] ECR 1873 that a migrant worker may rely on Article 77(2) of Regulation No 1612/68 in order to obtain social benefits provided for in the legislation of the host Member State in favour of the children of national workers (see paragraph 24 of the judgment). However, that benefit constitutes in favour of the migrant worker a social advantage within the meaning of that provision only where the worker continues to support his descendant (see the judgment in Case 316/85 Centre Publique d' Aide Sociale de Courcelles v Lebon [1987] ECR 2811, paragraph 13).

56. Any other interpretation of that provision would run counter to not only its wording but also to the Court’s obligation to interpret that derogation in accordance with the provisions of the Treaty, including those relating to Union citizenship (see, to that effect, Joined Cases C-22/08 and C-23/08 Vatsouras and Koupatantze [2009] ECR I-4585, paragraph 44).

39. Furthermore, it is, in any event, settled case-law that the non-application of the rules laid down in Article 39 EC to activities which entail participation in the exercise of powers conferred by public law is an exception to a fundamental freedom which must therefore be interpreted in such a way as to limit its scope to that which is strictly necessary in order to safeguard the interests which Member States are allowed to protect. It follows that that exception cannot permit a Member State to submit generally any participation in a public-law institution, such as the workers’ chambers in Austria, to a nationality requirement; it merely permits the exclusion of foreign workers, where appropriate, from certain specific activities of the institution in question which, in themselves, actually entail direct participation in the exercise of powers conferred by public law (see, inter alia, ASTI I , paragraph 19, and Wählergruppe Gemeinsam , paragraph 92).

Partant, le Tribunal a écarté l’argumentation de Meica comme étant fondée sur une appréciation erronée des faits.

117. In the main proceedings, the first condition is plainly satisfied as regards Article 43 EC. That provision confers rights on individuals (see Brasserie du Pêcheur and Factortame , paragraphs 23 and 54, and Test Claimants in the FII Group Litigation , paragraph 211).

49. Directive 2001/83 thus provides two definitions of medicinal product: one definition ‘by presentation’ and another definition ‘by function’. A product is a medicinal product if it comes within one or other of those two definitions.

52 It is also settled case-law that the terms used to specify the exemptions provided for by Article 13 of the Sixth Directive are to be interpreted strictly since they constitute exceptions to the general principle that VAT is to be levied on all services supplied for consideration by a taxable person (see, inter alia, Stichting Uitvoering Financiële Acties, cited above, paragraph 13, Bulthuis-Griffioen, cited above, paragraph 19, SDC, cited above, paragraph 19, and Case C-216/97 Gregg v Commissioners of Customs and Excise [1999] ECR I-4947, paragraph 12).

8 If that objective characteristic can be established at the time of customs clearance, the fact that it may also be possible to envisage another use for the garments will not preclude them from being classified for legal purposes as pyjamas.

19 The referring court is unsure how the judgment of 7 May 2009 in Siebrand (C‑150/08, EU:C:2009:294) should be interpreted. In particular, it questions whether that judgment, particularly paragraph 35 thereof, should be interpreted as meaning that the quantity of distilled alcohol added, assessed in terms of both volume and alcohol content, is the element which determines the classification under heading 2208 of the CN, whatever the other characteristics and properties of the product under consideration might be, or whether it is necessary, in all cases, to verify whether the organoleptic characteristics and the intended use of that product correspond to those of beverages which are classified under heading 2208 of the CN.

31. As a preliminary point, it should be noted that there is some divergence between the different language versions of that provision, as the Advocate General notes in point 36 of his Opinion. It is true that, in all language versions, the adjective ‘personalised’ describes the phrase ‘any ... device’. However, in the French version (‘tout dispositif personnalisé et/ou ensemble de procédures’), which is the same as, inter alia, the Spanish, Italian, Hungarian, Portuguese and Romanian versions, the adjective ‘personalised’ does not describe the phrase ‘set of procedures’. In contrast, in the German version (‘jedes personalisierte Instrument und/oder jeden personalisierten Verfahrensablauf’), the adjective ‘personalised’ describes the phrase ‘set of procedures’. The English version (‘any personalised device(s) and/or set of procedures’), which is the same as, inter alia, the Danish, Greek, Dutch, Finnish and Swedish versions, lends itself to both readings.

10 THE APPLICATION OF THAT PRINCIPLE TO THIS CASE MEANS THAT FIRST OF ALL CONSIDERATION SHOULD BE GIVEN TO QUESTION 7 RELATING TO THE INTERPRETATION OF ARTICLE 40 OF THE TREATY AND OF REGULATION NO 2759/75 , WHICH MUST BE ASSOCIATED WITH QUESTIONS 4 AND 5 RELATING TO THE INTERPRETATION OF ARTICLES 16 AND 34 RESPECTIVELY OF THE TREATY . IN FACT , FOR THE REASONS EXPLAINED IN THE JUDGMENT REFERRED TO ABOVE ( PARAGRAPHS 52 TO 55 ), THE PROVISIONS OF THE TREATY RELATING TO THE ABOLITION OF TARIFF AND COMMERCIAL BARRIERS TO INTRA-COMMUNITY TRADE ARE TO BE REGARDED AS AN INTEGRAL PART OF THE COMMON ORGANIZATION OF THE MARKET .

36 That directive seeks to prevent double taxation of profits distributed by subsidiary companies to parent companies (see, inter alia, judgments of 3 April 2008, Banque Fédérative du Crédit Mutuel, C‑27/07, EU:C:2008:195, paragraph 27; of 22 December 2008, Les Vergers du Vieux Tauves, C‑48/07,EU:C:2008:758, paragraph 37; and of 1 October 2009, Gaz de France — Berliner Investissement, C‑247/08, EU:C:2009:600, paragraph 57) through the mechanisms laid down in Article 4(1) and Article 5(1) of Directive 90/435.

8 Dans les arrêts cités, la Cour a constaté qu' un opérateur ayant librement arrêté sa production pendant un certain temps ne pouvait pas légitimement s' attendre à pouvoir reprendre la production dans les mêmes conditions que celles qui prévalaient auparavant et à ne pas être soumis à d' éventuelles règles, entre-temps arrêtées, relevant de la politique des marchés ou de la politique des structures (arrêts Mulder, point 23, et Von Deetzen, point 12). Elle a considéré en revanche qu' un tel opérateur, lorsqu' il avait été incité, par un acte de la Communauté, à suspendre la commercialisation pour une période limitée, dans l' intérêt général et contre paiement d' une prime, pouvait légitimement s' attendre à ne pas être soumis, à la fin de son engagement, à des restrictions qui l' affectent de manière spécifique en raison précisément du fait qu' il a fait usage des possibilités offertes par la réglementation communautaire (arrêts Mulder, point 24, et Von Deetzen, point 13).

19 It is true that in its judgment in Joined Cases 133 to 136/85 Rau v BALM [1987] ECR 2289, on which the French Government relies in its observations, the Court held that the possibility of bringing a direct action under the second paragraph of Article 173 of the EEC Treaty against a decision adopted by a Community institution did not preclude the possibility of bringing an action in a national court against a measure adopted by a national authority for the implementation of that decision, on the ground that the latter decision was unlawful.

17 Furthermore, the Court has consistently held that the general application, and thus the legislative nature, of a measure is not called in question by the fact that it is possible to determine more or less precisely the number or even the identity of the persons to whom it applies at any given time, as long as it is established that such application takes effect by virtue of an objective legal or factual situation defined by the measure in question in relation to its purpose (judgments in Case 6/68 Zuckerfabrik Watenstedt v Council [1968] ECR 409; Case 64/69 Compagnie française commerciale et financière v Commission [1970] ECR 221, paragraph 11; Case 242/81 Roquette Frères v Council [1982] ECR 3213, paragraph 7; Joined Cases 97/86, 193/86, 99/86 and 215/86 Asteris v Commission [1988] ECR 2181, paragraph 13; order in Fédération européenne de la santé animale, cited above, paragraph 29; Joined Cases C-15/91 and C-108/91 Buckl [1992] ECR I-6061, paragraph 25).

45 According to the summary of the facts submitted by the Commission, which is not contested by the French Government, there are particular periods of the year which are primarily concerned and there are places which are particularly vulnerable where incidents have occurred on several occasions during one and the same year.

23 As to Article 6 of the Treaty, it follows from the case-law of the Court of Justice that that article, which lays down a general prohibition of all discrimination on grounds of nationality, applies independently only to situations governed by Community law for which the Treaty lays down no specific non-discrimination rules (Case 305/87 Commission v Greece [1989] ECR 1461, paragraphs 12 and 13; Case C-1/93 Halliburton Services [1994] ECR I-1137, paragraph 12, and Royal Bank of Scotland, cited above, paragraph 20).

16 THE AIM OF THE PROVISION IS TO GIVE TO A PERSON TO WHOM BENEFITS WERE AWARDED UNDER THE OLD REGULATION THE RIGHT TO REQUEST THE REVIEW , IN HIS FAVOUR , OF SUCH BENEFITS .

68. Notwithstanding that finding, it must be borne in mind that, according to settled case-law, Community law cannot be relied on for abusive or fraudulent ends (see, in particular Case C-367/96 Kefalas and Others [1998] ECR I-2843, paragraph 20; Case C-373/97 Diamantis [2000] ECR I-1705, paragraph 33; and Case C-32/03 Fini H [2005] ECR I-1599, paragraph 32).

20 According to the case-law of the Court, Community law cannot be relied on for abusive or fraudulent ends (see, in particular, regarding freedom to supply services, Case 33/74 Van Binsbergen v Bedrijfsvereniging Metaalnijverheid [1974] ECR 1299, paragraph 13, and Case C-23/93 TV 10 v Commissariaat voor de Media [1994] ECR I-4795, paragraph 21; regarding the free movement of goods, Case 229/83 Leclerc and Others v `Au Blé Vert' and Others [1985] ECR 1, paragraph 27; regarding freedom of movement for workers, Case 39/86 Lair v Universität Hannover [1988] ECR 3161, paragraph 43; regarding the common agricultural policy, Case C-8/92 General Milk Products v Hauptzollamt Hamburg-Jonas [1993] ECR I-779, paragraph 21; and regarding social security, Case C-206/94 Brennet v Paletta [1996] ECR I-2357, paragraph 24).

50 As is clear from Article 4(5) of Directive 2004/35, that obligation also applies in the context of the fault-based liability system — under which liability arises from fault or negligence on the part of the operator — provided for in Article 3(1)(b) of that directive in respect of occupational activities other than those listed in Annex III thereto (see, to that effect, judgment of 4 March 2015, Fipa Group and Others, C‑534/13, EU:C:2015:140, paragraph 56 and the case-law cited).

65 Consequently, the authorities and, if need be, the courts of the host Member State must verify in turn, before demanding that social or labour documents complying with their own rules be drawn up and kept in the territory of that State, that the social protection for workers which may justify those requirements is not sufficiently safeguarded by the production, within a reasonable time, of originals or copies of the documents kept in the Member State of establishment or, failing that, by keeping the originals or copies of those documents available on site or in an accessible and clearly identified place in the territory of the host Member State.

39. It follows from the wording itself of that article and, in particular, from the terms ‘in accordance with conditions which they shall determine’ that the Member States have a certain freedom in determining the conditions for the refund of excess VAT (Case C‑78/00 Commission v Italy [2001] ECR I‑8195, paragraph 32; Case C‑25/07 Sosnowska [2008] ECR I‑5129, paragraph 17; and Case C‑107/10 Enel Maritsa Iztok 3 [2011] ECR I‑0000, paragraphs 33 and 64).

32 It appears from the express terms of Article 18(4) of the Sixth Directive, and in particular from the phrase according to conditions which they shall determine, that the Member States have a certain freedom to manoeuvre in determining the conditions for the refund of excess VAT.

57. The Court must also dismiss the Commission’s argument that recognition of the admissibility of actions against a decision of the latter ordering the recovery of State aid had the ‘paradoxical and perverse’ effect of requiring the beneficiaries of the State aid to challenge that decision immediately, before even knowing whether it would lead to a recovery order concerning them. That argument has already been invoked in almost identical terms by the Commission in the case of Italy v Commission (paragraph 31), but was not accepted.

42. Likewise, the tax regime at issue in the main proceedings can, in principle, be justified in the light of two of the factors referred to in paragraph 51 of the judgment in Marks & Spencer , namely the need to safeguard the allocation of the power to tax between the Member States and the need to prevent the danger that the same losses will be taken into account twice.

19 It must be recalled that the aim of Directive 77/187 is to ensure continuity of employment relationships within an economic entity, irrespective of any change of ownership. The fact that the activity carried on by such an entity is awarded successively to different operators by a public body cannot exclude the application of Directive 77/187, if passenger transport by bus does not involve the exercise of public authority (see, to that effect, Joined Cases C-173/96 and C-247/96 Sánchez Hidalgo and Others [1998] ECR I-8237, paragraphs 21 and 24).

50. Toutefois, le juge de l’Union doit notamment vérifier non seulement l’exactitude matérielle des éléments de preuve invoqués, leur fiabilité et leur cohérence, mais également contrôler si ces éléments constituent l’ensemble des données pertinentes devant être prises en considération pour apprécier une situation complexe et s’ils sont de nature à étayer les conclusions qui en sont tirées (arrêts précités Commission/Scott, point 65, et Frucona Košice/Commission, point 76).

21. In that connection, the Court has already held that the rules prohibiting restrictions on the freedom of establishment, set out in Article 31 of the EEA Agreement, are identical to those imposed by Article 49 TFEU (Case C-471/04 Keller Holding [2006] ECR I-2107, paragraph 49, and Case C-157/07 Krankenheim Ruhesitz am Wannsee-Seniorenheimstatt [2008] ECR I-8061, paragraph 24).

44 Such a situation does not present any link to one of the situations envisaged by Community law in the field of the free provision of services.

87 However, Article 3 of Regulation No 17 of the Council of 6 February 1962, First Regulation implementing Articles 85 and 86 of the Treaty (OJ, English Special Edition 1959-1962, p. 87), does not give a person making an application under that article the right to insist that the Commission take a final decision as to the existence or non-existence of the alleged infringement (Case 125/78 GEMA v Commission [1979] ECR 3173, paragraphs 17 and 18).

52. Where, conversely, those profits are subject in the Member State of the company making the distribution to a higher level of tax than the tax levied by the Member State of the company receiving them, the latter Member State is obliged to grant a tax credit only up to the limit of the amount of corporation tax for which the company receiving the dividends is liable. It is not required to repay the difference, that is to say, the amount paid in the Member State of the company making the distribution which is greater than the amount of tax payable in the Member State of the company receiving it.

20 It is for the national court, which alone has jurisdiction to assess the facts and interpret the national legislation, to determine in the light of all the circumstances whether, and to what extent, a legislative provision which, although applying irrespective of gender, actually affects a greater number of women than men, is justified by objective reasons unrelated to any discrimination on grounds of sex (see Case 96/80 Jenkins v Kingsgate [1981] ECR 911, paragraph 14; Bilka, paragraph 36; and Rinner-Kühn, paragraph 15).

36 IL APPARTIENT A LA JURIDICTION NATIONALE , QUI EST SEULE COMPETENTE POUR APPRECIER LES FAITS , DE DETERMINER SI ET DANS QUELLE MESURE LES MOTIFS EXPOSES PAR UN EMPLOYEUR POUR EXPLIQUER L ' ADOPTION D ' UNE PRATIQUE SALARIALE QUI S ' APPLIQUE INDEPENDAMMENT DU SEXE DU TRAVAILLEUR , MAIS QUI FRAPPE EN FAIT DAVANTAGE DE FEMMES QUE D ' HOMMES , PEUVENT ETRE CONSIDERES COMME RAISONS ECONOMIQUES OBJECTIVEMENT JUSTIFIEES . SI LA JURIDICTION NATIONALE CONSTATE QUE LES MOYENS CHOISIS PAR BILKA REPONDENT A UN BESOIN VERITABLE DE L ' ENTREPRISE , SONT APTES A ATTEINDRE L ' OBJECTIF POURSUIVI PAR CELLE-CI ET SONT NECESSAIRES A CET EFFET , LA CIRCONSTANCE QUE LES MESURES EN QUESTION FRAPPENT UN NOMBRE BEAUCOUP PLUS ELEVE DE TRAVAILLEURS FEMININS QUE DE TRAVAILLEURS MASCULINS N ' EST PAS SUFFISANTE POUR CONCLURE QU ' ELLES COMPORTENT UNE VIOLATION DE L ' ARTICLE 119 .

38. The concept of misuse of powers refers to cases where an administrative authority has used its powers for a purpose other than that for which they were conferred on it (see, in particular, Case 817/79 Buyl and Others v Commission [1982] ECR 245, paragraph 28). A decision may amount to a misuse of powers only if it appears, on the basis of objective, relevant and consistent facts, to have been taken for purposes other than those stated (see, in particular, Joined Cases 18/65 and 35/65 Guttmann [1966] ECR 103, at 117).

38 It is also important to note that, even if the decisions of the Minister for Industry to place the undertaking in difficulties under special administration and to allow it to continue trading are taken with regard, as far as possible, to the interests of the creditors and, in particular, to the prospects for increasing the value of the undertaking's assets, they are also influenced, as the Court held in paragraph 39 of its judgment in Ecotrade and as the national court has confirmed, by the concern to maintain the undertaking's economic activity in the light of national industrial policy considerations.

45. In Orfanopoulos and Oliveri (paragraph 82), the Court held that Article 3 of Directive 64/221 precludes a national practice whereby the national courts may not take into consideration, in reviewing the lawfulness of the expulsion of a national of another Member State, factual matters which occurred after the final decision of the competent authorities which may point to the cessation or the substantial diminution of the present threat which the conduct of the person concerned constitutes to the requirements of public policy.

28. Lastly, as regards examination of the objectives pursued by the common flat-rate scheme, it should be borne in mind that this responds to a need for simplification. As evidenced by paragraph 29 of Harbs , that scheme aims to offset the tax charged on purchases of goods and services made by farmers by way of a flat-rate compensation payment to farmers who carry on their activity in an agricultural, forestry or fisheries undertaking when they supply agricultural products or agricultural services.

54. According to consistent case-law any measures adopted by the institutions of the European Union, whatever their form, which are intended to have binding legal effects, are regarded as actionable measures, within the meaning of Article 263 TFEU (see, in particular, Case C‑316/91 Parliament v Council [1994] ECR I‑625, paragraph 8; Joined Cases C‑138/03, C‑324/03 and C‑431/03 Italy v Commission [2005] ECR I‑10043, paragraph 32; and Joined Cases C‑463/10 P and C‑475/10 P Deutsche Post and Germany v Commission [2011] ECR I‑9639, paragraph 36).

31. Thus, the Court has acknowledged that the shareholder who subscribes to the statutes of a company is deemed to give his consent to a jurisdiction clause therein, on the ground that subscribing creates a relationship between the shareholder and the company and between the shareholders themselves which must be regarded as contractual (see to that effect, Powell Duffryn , paragraphs 16 to 19).

11 The Court also held, in Case 324/86 Foreningen af Arbejdsledere i Danmark v Daddy' s Dance Hall A/S [1988] ECR 739, at paragraph 14, that the rules of the Directive had to be considered to be mandatory, so that it was not possible to derogate from them in a manner unfavourable to employees. The implementation of the rights conferred on employees by the Directive may not therefore be made subject to the consent of either the transferor or the transferee nor the consent of the employees' representatives or the employees themselves, with the sole reservation, as regards the workers themselves, that, following a decision freely taken by them, they are at liberty, after the transfer, not to continue the employment relationship with the new employer (judgment in Case 105/84 Foreningen af Arbejdsledere i Danmark v Danmols Inventar A/S, in liquidation [1985] ECR 2639, paragraph 16).

48. However, considerations of social policy, of State organisation, of ethics, or even the budgetary concerns which influenced or may have influenced the establishment by the national legislature of a scheme cannot prevail if the pension concerns only a particular category of workers, if it is directly related to the period of service completed and if its amount is calculated by reference to the last salary ( Beune , paragraph 45; Evrenopoulos , paragraph 21; Griesmar , paragraph 30; Niemi, paragraph 47; and Schönheit and Becker , paragraph 58).

17 In that respect, the Court has consistently held (see, inter alia, judgments in Case 98/78 Racke v Hauptzollamt Mainz [1979] ECR 69, paragraph 20, and Case 99/78 Decker v Hauptzollamt Landau [1979] ECR 101, paragraph 8) that, although in general the principle of legal certainty precludes a Community measure from taking effect from a point in time before its publication, it may exceptionally be otherwise where the purpose to be achieved so demands and where the legitimate expectations of those concerned are duly respected. That case-law also applies where the retroactivity is not expressly laid down by the measure itself but is the result of its content.

27 The Federal Republic of Germany puts forward three arguments in support of this plea in law.

45. It should also be borne in mind that the principle of proportionality, which is one of the general principles of Community law, requires that measures implemented through Community provisions are appropriate for attaining the objective pursued and must not go beyond what is necessary to achieve it (see, inter alia, Case 137/85 Maizena [1987] ECR 4587, paragraph 15; Case C-339/92 ADM Ölmühlen [1993] ECR I-6473, paragraph 15; and Case C-210/00 Käserei Champignon Hofmeister [2002] ECR I-6453, paragraph 59).

35 In those circumstances, the obligation to exchange driving licences which Member States may impose under the Directive is essentially a way of meeting administrative requirements.

68. Secondly, the appellants must, under the second limb of the fourth paragraph of Article 263 TFEU, be concerned not only individually but also directly by the act which they are seeking to have annulled, in the sense that that act must directly affect the legal situation of those parties and leave no discretion to the authorities responsible for implementing that act, such implementation being purely automatic and resulting from European Union law alone, without the application of other intermediate rules (see, to that effect, Commission v Koninklijke FrieslandCampina , paragraphs 48 and 49).

49. In the present case, as the Court of First Instance held in paragraph 94 of the judgment under appeal, it is clear from Article 2 of the contested decision that the Netherlands Authorities were obliged, without having any discretion whatsoever in the matter, to reject any pending request for first GFA authorisation, as the undertakings which were not beneficiaries of the GFA scheme at the time of the 11 July 2001 decision could not benefit from the transitional scheme.

35 It is true that the General Court did not expressly rule on whether that argument was admissible or well founded. However, in accordance with the case-law of the Court of Justice, the General Court cannot be required, every time that a party raises, in the course of the procedure, a new plea in law which clearly does not satisfy the requirements of Article 48(2) of its Rules of Procedure, either to explain in its judgment the reasons for which that plea is inadmissible, or to examine it in detail (see, inter alia, judgment of 20 March 2014, Rousse Industry v Commission, C‑271/13 P, not published, EU:C:2014:175, paragraph 22 and the case-law cited).

50. Second, the principle that national law must be interpreted in conformity with EU law – which is inherent in the Treaty system in that it enables the national court to ensure, for matters within its jurisdiction, the full effectiveness of EU law when it determines the dispute before it (see, to that effect, Case C‑160/01 Mau [2003] ECR I‑4791, paragraph 34) – requires the national court to consider national law as a whole in order to assess to what extent it may be applied so as not to produce a result contrary to that sought by EU law (see, to that effect, Case C‑131/97 Carbonari and Others [1999] ECR I‑1103, paragraphs 49 and 50, and Joined Cases C‑397/01 to C‑403/01 Pfeiffer and Others [2004] ECR I‑8835, paragraph 115).

23 First, it should be recalled that it is for the Member States, by virtue of Article 5 of the EC Treaty, to ensure that Community regulations, particularly those concerning the common agricultural policy, are implemented within their territory. Similarly, it follows from Article 8(1) of Regulation (EEC) No 729/70 of the Council of 21 April 1970 on the financing of the common agricultural policy (OJ, English Special Edition 1970 (1), p. 218), that Member States must take the measures necessary to recover sums lost as a result of irregularities or negligence. The exercise of any discretion to decide whether or not it would be expedient to demand repayment of Community funds unduly or irregularly granted would be inconsistent with that duty (Deutsche Milchkontor, paragraphs 17, 18 and 22).

43. As regards the extent of the monitoring of observance of that principle, it should be noted that the European Union legislature enjoys a wide discretionary power in matters concerning agriculture corresponding to the political responsibilities given to it by Articles 40 to 43 TFEU. Consequently, judicial review must be limited to verifying that the measure in question is not vitiated by any manifest error or misuse of powers and that the authority concerned has not manifestly exceeded the limits of its discretionary power (see, inter alia, AJD Tuna , paragraph 80).

128 In the first place, it must be borne in mind that the Court of First Instance alone has jurisdiction to examine how in each particular case the Commission appraised the gravity of unlawful conduct. In an appeal, the purpose of review by the Court of Justice is, first, to examine to what extent the Court of First Instance took into consideration, in a legally correct manner, all the essential factors to assess the gravity of particular conduct in the light of Article 85 of the Treaty and Article 15 of Regulation No 17 and, second, to consider whether the Court of First Instance responded to a sufficient legal standard to all the arguments raised by the appellant with a view to having the fine cancelled or reduced (see, on the latter point, Case C-219/95 P Ferriere Nord v Commission [1997] ECR I-4411, paragraph 31).

72. The education provided by such schools must be regarded as a service provided for remuneration.

33. S’agissant des participations dans des entreprises nouvelles ou existantes, ainsi que le confirment ces notes explicatives, l’objectif de créer ou de maintenir des liens économiques durables présuppose que les actions détenues par l’actionnaire donnent à celui-ci, soit en vertu des dispositions de la législation nationale sur les sociétés par actions, soit autrement, la possibilité de participer effectivement à la gestion de cette société ou à son contrôle (voir arrêts du 12 décembre 2006, Test Claimants in the FII Group Litigation, C‑446/04, Rec. p. I‑11753, point 182; du 24 mai 2007, Holböck, C‑157/05, Rec. p. I‑4051, point 35, et Commission/Allemagne, précité, point 18).

35 It is settled law that the Court of First Instance alone has jurisdiction to find the facts, save where a substantive inaccuracy in its findings is attributable to the documents submitted to it, and also to appraise those facts. The appraisal of the facts therefore does not, save where the clear sense of the evidence has been distorted, constitute a point of law which is subject, as such, to review by the Court of Justice (see Case C-390/95 P Antillean Rice Mills and Others v Commission [1999] ECR I-769, paragraph 29).

23. It is also apparent from settled case-law that Article 34 TFEU reflects the obligation to comply with the principles of non-discrimination and of mutual recognition of products lawfully manufactured and marketed in other Member States, as well as the principle of ensuring free access of EU products to national markets (see Case C-110/05 Commission v Italy [2009] ECR I-519, paragraph 34, and Ker-Optika , paragraph 48).

32 It follows from the foregoing that an official may not, by means of an action for damages, seek to obtain the same result as he would have obtained had he been successful in an action for annulment which he failed to commence in due time .

73 In this connection, it should first be recalled that it has been consistently held that the Medical Committee' s task, which consists in considering medical questions entirely objectively and independently, requires that it be allowed complete freedom of appraisal. Consequently, it is for the Medical Committee to decide to what extent account should be taken of medical reports previously drawn up (Biedermann v Court of Auditors, paragraph 19).

24. Par ailleurs, la Cour a jugé que l’objectif de la directive 85/337 ne saurait être détourné par le fractionnement d’un projet et que l’absence de prise en considération de l’effet cumulatif de plusieurs projets ne doit pas avoir pour résultat pratique de les soustraire dans leur totalité à l’obligation d’évaluation alors que, pris ensemble, ils sont susceptibles d’avoir des «incidences notables sur l’environnement», au sens de l’article 2, paragraphe 1, de la directive 85/337 (voir, en ce sens, arrêts précités Ecologistas en Acción-CODA, point 44, et Umweltanwalt von Kärnten, point 53).

33 It is also important to note that the application of the European Union rules on State aid is based on an obligation of sincere cooperation between, on the one hand, the national courts and, on the other, the Commission and the Courts of the European Union, in the context of which each acts on the basis of the role assigned to it by the Treaty. In the context of that cooperation, national courts must take all the necessary measures, whether general or specific, to ensure the fulfilment of the obligations under European Union law and refrain from taking those which may jeopardise the attainment of the objectives of the Treaty, as follows from Article 4(3) TEU. Therefore, national courts must, in particular, refrain from taking decisions which conflict with a decision of the Commission, even if it is provisional (see judgment of 21 November 2013, Deutsche Lufthansa, C‑284/12, EU:C:2013:755, paragraph 41).

12 IN CREATING A SYSTEM OF AIDS INTENDED TO FAVOUR THE PRODUCTION OF DURUM WHEAT IN THE COMMUNITY THE INSTITUTIONS SOUGHT TO ATTAIN SEVERAL OF THE OBJECTIVES IN ARTICLE 39, IN PARTICULAR ASSURING THE AVAILABILITY OF SUPPLIES IN THE COMMON MARKET AND THE STABILITY OF THE MARKET BY ENCOURAGING THE CULTIVATION OF DURUM WHEAT WHICH IS SHOWING AN UNFAVOURABLE BALANCE AS COMPARED WITH THAT OF COMMON WHEAT . THE CONCEPT OF STABILIZATION OF THE MARKETS CANNOT COVER THE MAINTENANCE AT ALL COSTS OF POSITIONS ALREADY ESTABLISHED UNDER PREVIOUS MARKET CONDITIONS . BESIDES, IT EMERGES FROM PARTS OF THE RECORD THAT THE PRODUCTION OF DURUM WHEAT, WHICH BEFORE 1966 HAD ONLY A LOCAL ECONOMIC SIGNIFICANCE, HAS INCREASED TO SUCH AN EXTENT THAT AT THE TIME OF THE APPLICATION IT PERMITTED COMMUNITY REQUIREMENTS TO BE COVERED TO THE EXTEND OF MORE THAN 80 PER CENT . A NEW PRODUCTION OF THIS MAGNITUDE MUST NORMALLY RESULT IN NEW MOVEMENTS OF TRADE BETWEEN MEMBER STATES .