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62 It should also be pointed out that, for the purpose of determining when ‘the programme is definitively terminated’, within the meaning of the second sentence of the second subparagraph of Article 3(1) of Regulation No 2988/95, account should be taken of the objective of the limitation period referred to in that provision. The limitation period provided for in that provision makes it possible, on the one hand, to ensure that, as long as a programme is not definitively terminated, the competent authority is still able to pursue irregularities committed in connection with the implementation of that programme, in order to facilitate protection of the European Union’s financial interests (see, to that effect, judgment of 6 October 2015, Firma Ernst Kollmer Fleischimport und -export, C‑59/14, EU:C:2015:660, paragraph 26.) On the other hand, it seeks to ensure legal certainty for economic operators. Those operators must be in a position to determine which among their transactions are definitive and which may still be the subject of legal proceedings (judgment of 11 June 2015, Pfeifer & Langen, C‑52/14, EU:C:2015:381, paragraph 24 and the case-law cited).

5 The Belle Report of the Commission (Document No VI/216/93 of 1 June 1993) lays down the guidelines to be followed when financial corrections must be applied against a Member State.

38. Under Article 1(2) of Framework Decision 2002/584, the Member States are in principle obliged to act upon a European arrest warrant. According to the provisions of that framework decision, the Member States may refuse to execute such a warrant only in the cases of mandatory non-execution provided for in Article 3 thereof and in the cases of optional non-execution listed in Articles 4 and 4a. Furthermore, the executing judicial authority may make the execution of a European arrest warrant subject solely to the conditions set out in Article 5 of that framework decision ( Radu , paragraphs 35 and 36).

19 The justification for a preliminary reference is not that it enables advisory opinions on general or hypothetical questions to be delivered but rather that it is necessary for the effective resolution of a dispute (see Case 244/80 Foglia v Novello [1981] ECR 3045, paragraph 18, and Zabala Erasun, cited above, paragraph 29).

85. However, it is undisputed that requirements of public security must, in particular as a derogation from the fundamental principle of the free movement of capital, be interpreted strictly, so that their scope cannot be determined unilaterally by each Member State without any control by the institutions of the European Union. Thus, public security may be relied on only if there is a genuine and sufficiently serious threat to a fundamental interest of society (see, in particular, Case C‑54/99 Église de scientologie [2000] ECR I‑1335, paragraph 17, and Case C‑171/08 Commission v Portugal , paragraph 73).

96. That applies all the more so in a context involving an aid scheme and a charge such as those at issue in the main proceedings, since that scheme concerns aid whose recipients operate in a market which cannot be regarded as being clearly distinct from that in which the persons liable to pay the charge also operate.

23 Article 234 of the Treaty is of general scope and applies to any international agreement, irrespective of subject-matter, which is capable of affecting application of the Treaty (Case 812/79 Attorney General v Burgoa [1980] ECR 2787, paragraph 6; Case C-158/91 Levy [1993] ECR I-4287, paragraph 11; Case C-62/98 Commission v Portugal [2000] ECR I-5171, paragraph 43).

33. Il convient de préciser, à cet égard, que, d’une part, il est requis non pas que les situations soient identiques, mais seulement qu’elles soient comparables et, d’autre part, l’examen de ce caractère comparable doit être effectué non pas de manière globale et abstraite, mais de manière spécifique et concrète au regard de la prestation concernée (voir arrêts du 1 er  avril 2008, Maruko, C‑267/06, Rec. p. I‑1757, points 67 à 69, et Römer, précité, point 42).

37. As regards, in the first place, whether a transaction such as the conclusion of the licensing agreement at issue in the main proceedings results in the accrual of a tax advantage contrary to the objectives of the VAT Directive, it is to be pointed out, first, that the term ‘place of supply of services’, which determines the place where the supply is taxed, is — like the terms ‘taxable person’, ‘supply of services’ and ‘economic activity’ — objective in nature and applies without regard to the purpose or results of the transactions concerned and without it being necessary for the tax authorities to examine the intention of the taxable person (see, to this effect, judgments in Halifax and Others , C‑255/02, EU:C:2006:121, paragraphs 56 and 57, and Newey , C‑653/11, EU:C:2013:409, paragraph 41).

32. Consequently, the first four questions referred, concerning the validity of Decision 2011/346, are admissible. Admissibility of the question relating to the interpretation of Article 14(1) and (2) of Regulation No 659/1999

79. Or, il résulte de la jurisprudence de la Cour qu’un État membre ne saurait être tenu de prendre en considération, aux fins de l’application de sa propre législation fiscale, les conséquences éventuellement défavorables découlant des particularités d’une réglementation d’un autre État membre applicable à un immeuble situé sur le territoire de ce dernier État et appartenant à un contribuable résidant sur le territoire du premier État (voir, par analogie, arrêts du 6 décembre 2007, Columbus Container Services, C‑298/05, Rec. p. I‑10451, point 51; du 28 février 2008, Deutsche Shell, C‑293/06, Rec. p. I‑1129, point 42, et Krankenheim Ruhesitz am Wannsee-Seniorenheimstatt, précité, point 49).

34. While the criteria for attributing jurisdiction set out therein are alternative in so far as they are linked by the conjunction ‘or’, it cannot however be unequivocally established from that wording whether the alternative nature of those criteria means that the applications relating to child maintenance are ancillary only to one set of proceedings concerning parental responsibility, or whether those applications may be deemed ancillary also to proceedings concerning the status of a person.

30. In that regard, it should be noted at the outset that a situation like that of Mr Byankov, who is prevented from travelling from the Member State of which he is a national to another Member State, falls within the scope of the freedom to move and reside within the territory of the Member States which is conferred by the status of citizen of the Union (see, by analogy, Jipa , paragraph 17; Case C-430/10 Gaydarov [2011] ECR I-11637, paragraphs 24 to 27; and Case C-434/10 Aladzhov [2011] ECR I-11659, paragraphs 24 to 27).

60. In addition, it is not apparent from any provision of that regulation that such a failure leads to the invalidity of the procedure for service.

32 According to Article 4(5) of the Habitats Directive, as interpreted by the Court, the protective measures prescribed in Article 6(2) to (4) of that directive are required only as regards sites which, in accordance with the third subparagraph of Article 4(2) of that directive, are placed on the list of sites selected as SCIs as adopted by the Commission under the procedure laid down in Article 21 of the same directive (judgments in Dragaggi and Others, C‑117/03, EU:C:2005:16, paragraph 25, and Bund Naturschutz in Bayern and Others, C‑244/05, EU:C:2006:579, paragraph 36).

29. Third, as stated by the Advocate General in paragraphs 32 and 34 of her Opinion, and as is clear from the usual and ordinary meaning of the phrase ‘pecuniary interest’, a contract cannot fall outside the concept of public contract merely because the remuneration remains limited to reimbursement of the expenditure incurred to provide the agreed service.

65. It is clear in particular from Article 38(1)(c) of the Rules of Procedure of the Court of Justice and from the case-law relating to that provision that an application initiating proceedings must state the subject-matter of the dispute and a summary of the pleas in law on which the application is based and that that statement must be sufficiently clear and precise to enable the defendant to prepare its defence and the Court to rule on the application. It is therefore necessary for the essential points of law and of fact on which a case is based to be indicated coherently and intelligibly in the application itself (Case C‑178/00 Italy v Commission [2003] ECR I‑303, paragraph 6, and Case C‑211/08 Commission v Spain [2010] ECR I‑5267, paragraph 32).

36 There is, moreover, nothing in the compulsory insurance directives that would limit the scope of the insurance obligation and of the protection which that obligation is intended to give to the victims of accidents caused by motor vehicles to the use of such vehicles on certain terrain or on certain roads.

58. In that regard, the justifications invoked by Ireland, according to which the delay in the implementation of the 2008 Act, which will end the derogation concerning the VHI, is due to internal difficulties, cannot be upheld. As the Court has repeatedly held, a Member State cannot plead provisions, practices or situations prevailing in its domestic legal order to justify failure to observe obligations arising under European Union law (see, inter alia, Case C‑568/07 Commission v Greece [2009] ECR I‑4505, paragraph 50).

32 It follows that, unlike periodic payment of pensions, inequality of employers' contributions paid under funded defined-benefit schemes, which is due to the use of actuarial factors differing according to sex, is not struck at by Article 119.

20. However, in the exercise of the powers conferred on them by European Union directives, Member States must respect the general principles of law that form part of the European Union legal order, which include, in particular, the principles of legal certainty and proportionality (see, inter alia, Federation of Technological Industries and Others , paragraph 29, and Case C‑271/06 Netto Supermarkt [2008] ECR I‑771, paragraph 18).

10NEVERTHELESS , ALTHOUGH ARTICLE 177 DOES NOT MAKE THE REFERENCE TO THE COURT SUBJECT TO WHETHER THE PROCEEDINGS DURING WHICH THE NATIONAL COURT DRAWS UP THE REFERENCE FOR A PRELIMINARY RULING WERE DEFENDED , IT MAY WHERE NECESSARY PROVE TO BE IN THE INTERESTS OF THE PROPER ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE THAT A QUESTION SHOULD BE REFERRED FOR A PRELIMINARY RULING ONLY AFTER BOTH SIDES HAVE BEEN HEARD .

52. As regards Article 4 TEU, it should be recalled that according to settled case-law, under the principle of sincere cooperation laid down in paragraph 3 of that article, it is for the Member States to ensure judicial protection of an individual’s rights under EU law (see, to that effect, inter alia the judgment in Unibet , C‑432/05, EU:C:2007:163, paragraph 38). In addition, Article 19(1) TEU requires Member States to provide remedies sufficient to ensure effective legal protection in the fields covered by EU law.

27. Admittedly, if in order to mitigate that situation the tenderer is afforded the right to challenge the validity of that ground of exclusion in the review procedure he instigates in order to challenge the lawfulness of the decision by which the contracting authority did not consider his bid as being the best bid, it is possible that at the end of that procedure the review body may reach the conclusion that the bid should actually have been eliminated at the outset and that the tenderer's application should be dismissed on the ground that, in the light of that circumstance, he neither has been nor risks being harmed by the infringement he alleges.

28. It is also settled case-law that the taxable amount for the supply of goods or services is represented by the consideration actually received for them. That consideration is thus the subjective value, that is to say, the value actually received, and not a value estimated according to objective criteria. In addition, that consideration must be capable of being expressed in money (see Fillibeck v Finanzamt Neustadt , paragraphs 13 and 14 and the case-law cited).

77 Furthermore, the Italian Government raised no protest at the time and did not even express any reservations concerning the method used, of which it was well aware on account of its close collaboration with the Commission in the context of the sugar COM.

80. Moreover, mere administrative practices, which by their nature are alterable at will by the authorities and are not given the appropriate publicity, cannot be regarded as constituting fulfilment of the obligations owed by the Member States in the context of transposition of a directive (see Case C-197/96 Commission v France [1997] ECR I‑1489, paragraph 14; Case C-145/99 Commission v Italy [2002] ECR I‑2235, paragraph 30; and Case C-33/03 Commission v United Kingdom [2005] ECR I‑1865, paragraph 25).

70. The fact that the DLA, AA and CA, unlike the benefit at issue in Jauch and Hosse , do not have as there the essential purpose supplementing sickness insurance benefits does not affect the categorisation of those allowances.

22. Finally, with respect to the difficulties encountered by the federal authorities in convincing the federated entities to accept that an obligation to pay a remuneration for public lending should be imposed on the establishments falling within the scope of Article 1(3) of the Directive, it is settled case-law that a Member State cannot rely on provisions, practices or circumstances in its internal legal order to justify failure to comply with obligations and time-limits laid down by a directive (see Case C-419/01 Commission v Spain [2003] ECR I-4947, paragraph 22).

22. It is sufficient to point out that, according to settled case-law, the question whether a Member State has failed to fulfil its obligations must be determined by reference to the situation prevailing in the Member State at the end of the period laid down in the reasoned opinion and that a Member State cannot rely on provisions, practices or circumstances in its own legal order to justify failure to implement a directive within the prescribed period (Case C-392/01 Commission v Spain [2002] ECR I-11111, paragraph 9).

59. As the Court has consistently held, it is particularly important, in order to satisfy the requirement of legal certainty, that individuals should have the benefit of a clear and precise legal situation enabling them to ascertain the full extent of their rights and, where appropriate, to rely on them before the national courts (see Case 29/84 Commission v Germany [1985] ECR 1661, paragraph 23; Case 363/85 Commission v Italy [1987] ECR 1733, paragraph 7; Case C-59/89 Commission v Germany [1991] ECR I-2607, paragraph 18; and Case C-236/95 Commission v Greece [1996] ECR I-4459, paragraph 13).

38 IT MAY THEREFORE BE CONCLUDED THAT THE FIXING OF THE CONTESTED TARIFF IS THE RESULT OF ACTION BY THE NETHERLANDS STATE AND THUS FALLS WITHIN THE MEANING OF THE PHRASE "AID GRANTED BY A MEMBER STATE" UNDER ARTICLE 92 OF THE TREATY . 2 . WHETHER THE TARIFF IS LOWER THAN WAS NECESSARY TO TAKE ACCOUNT OF THE RISK OF CONVERSION TO COAL

61. Although the first paragraph of Article 351 TFEU implies a duty on the part of the institutions of the European Union not to impede the performance of the obligations of Member States which stem from an agreement prior to 1 January 1958, such as the Chicago Convention, it is, however, to be noted that that duty of the institutions is designed to permit the Member States concerned to perform their obligations under a prior agreement and does not bind the European Union as regards the third States party to that agreement (see, to this effect, Case 812/79 Burgoa [1980] ECR 2787, paragraphs 8 and 9).

38 Where there is an organisational and functional link between an appeal chamber and the regional finance authority which adopts the decisions contested before it, it is impossible to regard the chamber as a third party in relation to that administrative authority.

31. Toutefois, les conditions que doit remplir une mesure pour relever de la notion d’«aide» au sens de l’article 107 TFUE ne sont pas satisfaites si l’entreprise bénéficiaire pouvait obtenir le même avantage que celui qui a été mis à sa disposition au moyen de ressources d’État dans des circonstances qui correspondent aux conditions normales du marché (arrêts du 5 juin 2012, Commission/EDF, C‑124/10 P, non encore publié au Recueil, point 78 et jurisprudence citée, ainsi que du 24 janvier 2013, Frucona Košice/Commission, C-73/11 P, non encore publié au Recueil, point 70).

30. En effet, premièrement, selon une jurisprudence constante, les exonérations de TVA doivent être interprétées strictement puisqu’elles constituent des exceptions au principe général selon lequel chaque service fourni à titre onéreux par un assujetti est soumis à cette taxe (voir, notamment, arrêt du 22 décembre 2010, Feltgen et Bacino Charter Company, C‑116/10, Rec. p. I‑14187, point 19 et jurisprudence citée).

81. Although those two provisions have the same meaning, each of them has been given a very specific scope, with the result that they cannot be applied concurrently (Joined Cases C‑317/01 and C‑369/01 Abatay and Others [2003] ECR I‑12301, paragraph 86).

58. In those circumstances, the General Court did not err in law in holding, in paragraph 103 of the judgment under appeal, that where the funds of an entity identified as being engaged in nuclear proliferation are frozen there is a not insignificant danger that that entity may exert pressure on the entities it owns or controls in order to circumvent the effect of the measures applying to it and that the freezing of the funds of those entities is necessary and appropriate in order to ensure the effectiveness of the measures adopted and to ensure that those measures are not circumvented.

37 The Court has accordingly held that, since, under a principle of international law, a Member State cannot refuse its own nationals the right to enter its territory and remain there and since those nationals thus enjoy an unconditional right of residence there, Directive 2004/38 is not intended to govern the residence of a Union citizen in the Member State of which he is a national. Consequently, in view of the case-law referred to in paragraph 32 of this judgment, nor is the directive intended to confer, in the territory of that Member State, a derived right of residence on family members of that citizen who are third-country nationals (see, to that effect, judgments of 5 May 2011, McCarthy, C‑434/09, EU:C:2011:277, paragraphs 29, 34 and 42, and of 12 March 2014, O. and B., C‑456/12, EU:C:2014:135, paragraphs 42 and 43).

43. In those circumstances and having regard to what is said in paragraph 36 above, Directive 2004/38 is therefore also not intended to confer a derived right of residence on third‑country nationals who are family members of a Union citizen residing in the Member State of which the latter is a national.

51. The reason for this is that, like Regulation No 2580/2001, that inclusion on the list is of general application. It serves, together with that regulation, to impose on an indeterminate number of persons an obligation to comply with specific restrictive measures against DHKP-C (see, by analogy, Kadi and Al Barakaat International Foundation v Council and Commission , paragraphs 241 to 244).

58. Il ressort de l’article 58 du statut de la Cour que les moyens du pourvoi doivent être fondés sur des arguments tirés de la procédure devant le Tribunal. En outre, selon l’article 170, paragraphe 1, du règlement de procédure de la Cour, le pourvoi ne peut modifier l’objet du litige devant le Tribunal. La compétence de la Cour, dans le cadre du pourvoi, est donc limitée à l’appréciation de la solution juridique qui a été donnée aux moyens débattus devant les premiers juges. Une partie ne saurait donc modifier l’objet du litige en soulevant pour la première fois devant la Cour un moyen qu’elle aurait pu soulever devant le Tribunal, mais qu’elle n’a pas soulevé, dès lors que cela reviendrait à lui permettre de saisir la Cour d’un litige plus étendu que celui dont a eu à connaître le Tribunal (voir, en ce sens, arrêts du 29 septembre 2011, Elf Aquitaine/Commission, C-521/09 P, non encore publié au Recueil, point 35, et du 3 mai 2012, Legris Industries/Commission, C-289/11 P, non encore publié au Recueil, point 33).

77. Consequently, and by analogy with what applies in relation to the choice of the legal basis of a Community act, it must be concluded that in a situation such as that at issue in the present case the classification of a Community act as a proposal or initiative to build upon the Schengen acquis within the meaning of the first subparagraph of Article 5(1) of the Schengen Protocol must rest on objective factors which are amenable to judicial review, including in particular the aim and the content of the act (see Case C‑300/89 Commission v Council [1991] ECR I‑2867 (‘ Titanium dioxide ’), paragraph 10; Case C‑176/03 Commission v Council [2005] ECR I‑7879, paragraph 45; and Case C‑440/05 Commission v Council [2007] ECR I‑0000, paragraph 61).

24 National legislation such as Article 53a(2) of the GewO, which provides that bakers, butchers and grocers may not make sales on rounds in a given administrative district, such as an Austrian Verwaltungsbezirk, unless they also carry on their trade at a permanent establishment situated in that administrative district or in an adjacent municipality, where they also offer for sale the same goods as they do on their rounds, relates to the selling arrangements for certain goods in that it lays down the geographical areas in which each of the operators concerned may sell his goods by that method.

63 As regards the Commission's obligation to state reasons, it is settled case-law that the statement of reasons required by Article 190 of the Treaty must be appropriate to the act at issue and must disclose in a clear and unequivocal fashion the reasoning followed by the institution which adopted the measure in question in such a way as to enable the persons concerned to ascertain the reasons for the measure and to enable the competent Community court to exercise its power of review. The requirements to be satisfied by the statement of reasons depend on the circumstances of each case, in particular the content of the measure in question, the nature of the reasons given and the interest which the addressees of the measure, or other parties to whom it is of direct and individual concern, may have in obtaining explanations. It is not necessary for the reasoning to go into all the relevant facts and points of law, since the question whether the statement of reasons meets the requirements of Article 190 of the Treaty must be assessed with regard not only to its wording but also to its context and to all the legal rules governing the matter in question (see, in particular, Joined Cases 296/82 and 318/82 Netherlands and Leeuwarder Papierwarenfabriek v Commission [1985] ECR 809, paragraph 19, Case C-350/88 Delacre and Others v Commission [1990] ECR I-395, paragraphs 15 and 16, and Case C-56/93 Belgium v Commission [1996] ECR I-723, paragraph 86).

46 While the data on air quality for 2014 amount to events which took place after the reasoned opinion of 11 July 2014, those events are of the same kind as those to which the opinion referred and constitute the same conduct.

32. The Framework Agreement is thus in line with the fundamental social rights enshrined in paragraph 16 of the Community Charter of the Fundamental Social Rights of Workers on equal treatment for men and women, to which the Framework Agreement refers, inter alia, at paragraph 4 of its general considerations, and which is also mentioned in the first paragraph of Article 151 TFEU, social rights which are associated with the improvement of living and working conditions and with the existence of proper social protection for workers, in the present case those who have applied for or taken parental leave (see, to that effect, Meerts , paragraph 37; Case C‑486/08 Zentralbetriebsrat der Landeskrankenhäuser Tirols [2010] ECR I‑3527, paragraph 52; and Chatzi , paragraph 36).

55 Further, where the measure at issue is conceived as an aid scheme and not as individual aid, it is for the Commission to establish that that measure, although it confers an advantage of general application, confers the benefit of that advantage exclusively on certain undertakings or certain sectors of activity (see, to that effect, inter alia, judgment of 30 June 2016, Belgium v Commission, C‑270/15 P, EU:C:2016:489, paragraphs 49 and 50).

Il convient, en deuxième lieu, de rappeler qu’il est de jurisprudence constante que l’existence d’un manquement doit être appréciée en fonction de la situation de l’État membre telle qu’elle se présentait au terme du délai fixé dans l’avis motivé et que les changements éventuels intervenus par la suite ne sauraient être pris en compte par la Cour (arrêt du 16 juillet 2015, Commission/Slovénie, C‑140/14, non publié, EU:C:2015:501, point 63 et jurisprudence citée).

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.

31. In that regard, in paragraph 19 of the judgment in Sonntag (C‑172/91, EU:C:1993:144), the Court held that, even though it is joined to criminal proceedings, a civil action for compensation for injury to an individual resulting from a criminal offence continues to be civil in nature. In the legal systems of the contracting States, the Court held, the right to obtain compensation for injury suffered as a result of conduct regarded as culpable under criminal law is generally recognised as being a civil-law right.

56. However, the family members of those in charge of businesses on the list in Annex VI to the contested regulation are covered by the measures freezing funds for the sole reason that they belong to the families of persons who, in turn, are associated with those national leaders.

38. That case-law may be transposed to orders for preliminary reference provided for by the Protocol (see, to that effect, Case C-220/95 Van den Boogaard [1997] ECR I-1147, paragraph 16; Case C-295/95 Farrell [1997] ECR I-1683, paragraph 11; and Case C-159/97 Castelletti [1999] ECR I-1597, paragraph 14).

75. Accordingly, the prohibition does not affect the sale of domestic medicines in the same way as it affects the sale of those coming from other Member States.

41. As the Court of Justice has held, the mere fact that an entity does not, in a given case, produce evidence capable of rebutting the presumption of actual exercise of decisive influence by a parent company over its subsidiary does not mean that that presumption cannot be rebutted in any circumstances (Case C-521/09 P Elf Aquitaine v Commission [2011] ECR I-8947, paragraph 66).

66. In that regard, the mere fact that an entity does not, in a given case, produce evidence capable of rebutting the presumption of actual exercise of decisive influence does not mean that that presumption cannot be rebutted in any circumstances.

42. As paragraphs 62 to 68 of the judgment in Case C‑275/06 Promusicae [2008] ECR I‑271 make clear, the protection of the fundamental right to property, which includes the rights linked to intellectual property, must be balanced against the protection of other fundamental rights.

25. In that regard, it should be borne in mind, first, that the fact that the use of a product presents a risk to health is not an indication that it is pharmacologically effective. The risk to health, although it must be taken into consideration in the classification of a product as a medicinal product by function, is none the less an autonomous factor (see Commission v Germany , paragraph 69).

35. However, that interpretation rests on the link of functional equivalence which exists between the criteria set out in Article 8(1) of Directive 91/414 as transitional measures and those laid down in Article 4 of that directive ( Hogan Lovells International , paragraphs 33 to 46). There is no such link of functional equivalence between the criteria laid down in Article 8(4) of Directive 91/414 and those in Article 4 thereof.

36. The scientific criteria which a plant protection product must fulfil in order to obtain a MA are set out in Article 4(1)(b) to (f) of Directive 91/414 and the requirements for the dossier to be submitted in order to obtain an authorisation are set out in Annex III to that directive.

48. That assessment of the General Court reflects the approach adopted by the Court of Justice that the method by which aid is financed may render the entire aid scheme incompatible with the common market, necessitating, in such a case, an examination of the aid which takes into account the method of its financing (see Joined Cases C‑261/01 and C‑262/01 van Calster and Others [2003] ECR I‑12249, paragraph 49).

22. It is all the more so in the event of infringement of a right directly conferred by a Community provision upon which individuals are entitled to rely before the national courts. In that event, the right to reparation is the necessary corollary of the direct effect of the Community provision whose breach caused the damage sustained.

39. If the referring court were to consider that that term forms part of the main subject-matter of the contractual framework, that court must also determine whether that term has been drafted by the seller or supplier in plain, intelligible language (see, to that effect, judgment in Caja de Ahorros y Monte de Piedad de Madrid , C‑484/08, EU:C:2010:309, paragraph 32, and order in Pohotovosť , C‑76/10, EU:C:2010:685, paragraph 72). The concept of ‘plain, intelligible language’

31 The Kingdom of Spain adds that, by prolonging the monopoly in marketing the product enjoyed by the undertakings which hold the patent or which have obtained the corresponding licences, the supplementary certificate has the effect of preventing the generic medicines industry from competing freely with those undertakings, to the obvious detriment of consumers, who would be able to obtain the medicines at better prices from the moment the monopoly situation ended.

24. Moreover, Article 71 of the CISA, also referred to in the first question, does not contain any element which might restrict the scope of Article 54 of the CISA (see Van Esbroeck , paragraph 40). It follows that the reference to existing United Nations Conventions in Article 71 cannot be understood as hindering the application of the ne bis in idem principle laid down in Article 54 (see Van Esbroeck , paragraph 41).

49 According to settled case-law, wherever the provisions of a directive appear, so far as their subject-matter is concerned, to be unconditional and sufficiently precise, those provisions may, in the absence of implementing measures adopted within the prescribed period, be relied upon as against any national provision which is incompatible with the directive (see Case 8/81 Becker [1982] ECR 53, paragraph 25; Case C-134/99 IGI [2000] ECR I-7717, paragraph 36).

36. Thus, the Court has held that not all family members of a Union citizen who are not nationals of a Member State derive rights of entry into and residence in a Member State from Directive 2004/38, but only those who are family members, within the meaning of point 2 of Article 2 of that directive, of a Union citizen who has exercised his right of freedom of movement by becoming established in a Member State other than the Member State of which he is a national (judgments in Metock and Others , EU:C:2008:449, paragraph 73; Dereci and Others , C‑256/11, EU:C:2011:734, paragraph 56; Iida , C‑40/11, EU:C:2012:691, paragraph 51; and O. and B. , EU:C:2014:135, paragraph 39).

47 Compensation under Regulation No 2187/93 remains a separate issue since the system set up by that regulation constitutes an alternative to the settlement of disputes by the courts and offers an additional means of making good damage.

68 As regards the admissibility of this complaint of the Commission, it should be borne in mind, first, that it follows from the purpose assigned to the pre-litigation stage of the Treaty infringement procedure that the letter of formal notice is intended to define the subject-matter of the dispute and to indicate to the Member State, which is invited to submit its observations, the factors enabling it to prepare its defence (Case 274/83 Commission v Italy [1985] ECR 1077, paragraph 19).

29. In that regard, the Court has consistently held that pregnancy must be clearly distinguished from illness, in that pregnancy is not in any way comparable with a pathological condition (see to that effect, inter alia, Webb , C‑32/93, EU:C:1994:300, paragraph 25 and the case-law cited).

65. In that connection, the Court has already held that Member States are subject to special duties of action and abstention in a situation in which the Commission has submitted to the Council proposals which, although they have not been adopted by the Council, represent the point of departure for concerted Community action (Case 804/79 Commission v United Kingdom [1981] ECR I-1045, paragraph 28, and Case C-266/03 Commission v Luxembourg , paragraph 59).

55. The Court has already stated that heading 1209, entitled ‘Seeds, fruits and spores, of a kind used for sowing’, relates only to plant matter having the ability to germinate and create a new plant. By contrast, heading 1212 is a residual category covering plant seeds which are intended, not to be sown, but for human consumption (judgment in Sunshine Deutschland Handelsgesellschaft , C‑229/06, EU:C:2007:239, paragraph 30).

33. Next it must be borne in mind that the Court has already held that the fact that personal benefit may be derived by employees from such transport must be regarded as being of only secondary importance compared to the needs of the business (see, to that effect, Fillibeck , paragraph 30).

En effet, ainsi que la Cour l’a déjà jugé, les amendes infligées en raison de violations de l’article 81 CE (devenu article 101 TFUE), telles que prévues à l’article 15, paragraphe 2, du règlement n° 17 (remplacé, en substance, par l’article 23, paragraphe 2, du règlement n° 1/2003), ont pour objet de réprimer les actes illégaux des entreprises concernées ainsi que de dissuader tant les entreprises en question que d’autres opérateurs économiques de violer, à l’avenir, les règles du droit de la concurrence de l’Union (voir, en ce sens, arrêt du 17 juin 2010, Lafarge/Commission, C‑413/08 P, EU:C:2010:346, point 102).

33. As European Union law now stands, service concession contracts are not governed by any of the directives by which the legislature has regulated the field of public procurement (see Coname , paragraph 16, and Case C‑347/06 ASM Brescia [2008] ECR I‑5641, paragraph 57). However, the public authorities concluding them are bound to comply with the fundamental rules of the EC Treaty, including Articles 43 EC and 49 EC, and with the consequent obligation of transparency (see, to that effect, Telaustria and Telefonadress , paragraphs 60 to 62; Coname , paragraphs 16 to 19; and Parking Brixen , paragraphs 46 to 49).

20 IN MAKING THAT SUBMISSION THE APPLICANT FAILS TO UNDERSTAND THE ROLE OF THE APPEAL ASSESSOR . HIS TASK IS TO CHECK , QUITE INDEPENDENTLY , THE ASSESSMENTS MADE BY THE FIRST ASSESSOR . HE IS THEREFORE PERFECTLY ENTITLED TO CONFIRM THE FIRST ASSESSMENT IF HE THINKS THAT APPROPRIATE .

22 It is settled case-law that the third sentence of Article 11 of Directive 2004/48, like Article 8(3) of Directive 2001/29 to which it refers, obliges Member States to ensure that an intermediary whose services are used by a third party in order to infringe an intellectual property right may, regardless of any liability of its own in relation to the facts at issue, be ordered to take measures aimed at bringing those infringements to an end and measures seeking to prevent further infringements (see to that effect, in particular, judgments of 12 July 2011 in L’Oréal and Others, C‑324/09, EU:C:2011:474, paragraphs 127 to 134, and 24 November 2011 in Scarlet Extended, C‑70/10, EU:C:2011:771, paragraphs 30 and 31).

90. In exercising their discretion relating to the protection of public health, the Member States must comply with the principle of proportionality. The means which they choose must therefore be confined to what is actually necessary to ensure the safeguarding of public health; they must be proportional to the objective thus pursued, which could not have been attained by measures which are less restrictive of intra-Community trade ( Commission v Denmark , paragraph 45, and Case C‑24/00 Commission v France , paragraph 52).

30. The types of injury referred to in Article 4(4)(a) of the Directive, where they occur, are the consequence of a certain degree of similarity between the earlier and later marks, by virtue of which the relevant section of the public makes a connection between those two marks, that is to say, establishes a link between them even though it does not confuse them (see, in relation to Article 5(2) of the Directive, General Motors , paragraph 23; Adidas-Salomon and Adidas Benelux , paragraph 29, and adidas and adidas Benelux , paragraph 41).

9. À cet égard, il convient de rappeler que, selon une jurisprudence constante, l’existence d’un manquement doit être appréciée en fonction de la situation de l’État membre telle qu’elle se présentait au terme du délai fixé dans l’avis motivé (voir, notamment, arrêt du 12 mars 2009, Commission/Grèce, C‑298/08, point 7 et jurisprudence citée).

40. As regards, secondly, the derogation under Article 20(2)(d) of Directive 93/38, the case‑law has made it subject to three cumulative conditions, namely an unforeseeable event, extreme urgency rendering impossible the observance of the time‑limits laid down for calls for tenders, and a causal link between the unforeseeable event and the extreme urgency resulting therefrom (see, to that effect, in the context of Directive 71/305, Case C-107/92 Commission v Italy [1993] ECR I-4655, paragraph 12, and Case C‑318/94 Commission v Germany [1996] ECR I-1949, paragraph 14).

41. Or, il ressort de l’article 52, paragraphe 1, TFUE que la protection de la santé publique peut justifier des restrictions à la liberté d’établissement. L’importance dudit objectif est confirmée par les articles 168, paragraphe 1, TFUE et 35 de la charte des droits fondamentaux de l’Union européenne en vertu desquels, notamment, un niveau élevé de protection de la santé humaine est assuré dans la définition et la mise en œuvre de toutes les politiques et actions de l’Union (voir arrêt Blanco Pérez et Chao Gómez, précité, points 63 et 65).

32. On the other hand, national provisions which apply to shareholdings acquired solely with the intention of making a financial investment without any intention to influence the management and control of the undertaking must be examined exclusively in light of the free movement of capital (judgments in Haribo Lakritzen Hans Riegel and Österreichische Salinen , EU:C:2011:61, paragraph 35; Accor , EU:C:2011:581, paragraph 32; Scheunemann , EU:C:2012:481, paragraph 23; and Test Claimants in the FII Group Litigation , EU:C:2012:707, paragraph 92).

118 UNDER THE TERMS OF ARTICLE 15 ( 2 ) OF REGULATION NO 17 , THE COMMISSION MAY IMPOSE FINES OF FROM 1 000 TO 1 000 000 UNITS OF ACCOUNT OR A SUM IN EXCESS THEREOF BUT NOT EXCEEDING 10% OF THE TURNOVER IN THE PRECEDING BUSINESS YEAR OF EACH OF THE UNDERTAKINGS PARTICIPATING IN THE INFRINGEMENT . ARTICLE 15 ( 2 ) PROVIDES THAT IN FIXING THE AMOUNT OF THE FINE WITHIN THOSE LIMITS THE GRAVITY AND THE DURATION OF THE INFRINGEMENT ARE TO BE TAKEN INTO CONSIDERATION .

47. The identification of those essential characteristics must be carried out on a case­by-case basis, there being no hierarchy that applies systematically between the various types of elements of which a sign may consist. In determining the essential characteristics of a sign, the competent authority may either base its assessment directly on the overall impression produced by the sign, or first examine in turn each of the components of the sign concerned ( Lego Juris v OHIM , paragraph 70 and the case-law cited).

13 IN THOSE CIRCUMSTANCES , THE ABSENCE OF ANY PROVISION FOR THE PROTECTION OF ANIMALS KEPT FOR FARMING PURPOSES IN THE REGULATIONS ESTABLISHING COMMON ORGANIZATIONS OF THE AGRICULTURAL MARKETS CANNOT BE INTERPRETED AS RENDERING THE NATIONAL RULES IN THAT FIELD INAPPLICABLE PENDING THE POSSIBLE ADOPTION OF COMMUNITY PROVISIONS AT A LATER STAGE . SUCH AN INTERPRETATION WOULD BE INCOMPATIBLE WITH THE COMMUNITY ' S CONCERN FOR THE HEALTH AND PROTECTION OF ANIMALS , AS EVINCED , INTER ALIA , BY ARTICLE 36 OF THE TREATY AND BY COUNCIL DECISION NO 78/923/EEC , OF 19 JUNE 1978 , CONCERNING THE CONCLUSION OF THE EUROPEAN CONVENTION FOR THE PROTECTION OF ANIMALS KEPT FOR FARMING PURPOSES ( OFFICIAL JOURNAL 1978 , L 323 , P . 12 ).

47 Services normally provided for remuneration are services that may be classified as ‘economic activities’. The essential characteristic of remuneration lies in the fact that it constitutes consideration for the service in question (see, by analogy, judgment of 11 September 2007, Schwarz and Gootjes-Schwarz, C‑76/05, EU:C:2007:492, paragraphs 37 and 38 and the case-law cited).

42 However, in a sector such as scheduled public transport by bus, where the tangible assets contribute significantly to the performance of the activity, the absence of a transfer to a significant extent from the old to the new contractor of such assets, which are necessary for the proper functioning of the entity, must lead to the conclusion that the entity does not retain its identity.

53. It is true that those provisions differ in terms of the degree of similarity required. Whereas the implementation of the protection provided for under Article 8(1)(b) of Regulation No 40/94 is conditional upon a finding of a degree of similarity between the marks at issue such that there exists a likelihood of confusion between them on the part of the relevant section of the public, the existence of such a likelihood is not necessary for the protection conferred by Article 8(5) of that regulation. Accordingly, the types of injury referred to in Article 8(5) may be the consequence of a lesser degree of similarity between the earlier and later marks, provided that it is sufficient for the relevant section of the public to make a connection between those marks, that is to say, to establish a link between them (see, to that effect, Adidas-Salomon and Adidas Benelux , paragraphs 27, 29 and 31, and Intel Corporation , paragraphs 57, 58 and 66).

173. The Court has consistently held that, in the absence of Community rules governing the matter, it is for the domestic legal system of each Member State to designate the courts and tribunals having jurisdiction and to lay down the detailed procedural rules governing actions for safeguarding rights which individuals derive from Community law ( Impact , paragraph 44 and case-law cited, and order in Vassilakis and Others , paragraph 141).

26. No reason has been put before the Court to justify why the mere fact that a marketing authorisation of reference was withdrawn at the request of its holder should entail the automatic withdrawal of the parallel import licence issued for the medicinal product in question (see, to that effect, Ferring , paragraph 35).

26 In order to find that a collective dominant position exists, the undertakings in question must be linked in such a way that they adopt the same conduct on the market (judgment in Almelo, paragraph 42).

34. Disputes of that nature do result from the exercise of public powers by one of the parties to the case, as it exercises powers falling outside the scope of the ordinary legal rules applicable to relationships between private individuals (see, to this effect, Sonntag , paragraph 22; Henkel , paragraph 30; Préservatrice foncière TIARD , paragraph 30; and Case C-265/02 Frahuil [2004] ECR I‑1543, paragraph 21).

39. For the sake of completeness, it must be noted that, as recitals 3, 21 and 24 in the preamble to Regulation No 1782/2003 make clear, environmental protection forms part of the objectives of the single payment scheme. The Court has also held that environmental protection, one of the essential objectives of the European Union, must be regarded as forming part of the common agricultural policy (Case C-428/07 Horvath [2009] ECR I-6355, paragraph 29). Moreover, Article 2 point (1) of Regulation No 796/2004 expressly provides that arable land, and consequently agricultural areas pursuant to Article 2(a) of Regulation No 795/2004, is land maintained in good agricultural and environmental condition within the meaning of Article 5 of Regulation No 1782/2003.

33 As is clear from the Court’s case-law, while the positive effect of paid annual leave for the safety and health of the worker is deployed fully if it is taken in the year prescribed for that purpose, namely the current year, the significance of that rest period in that regard remains if it is taken during a later period (see judgments of 6 April 2006 in Federatie Nederlandse Vakbeweging, C‑124/05, EU:C:2006:244, paragraph 30, and of 20 January 2009 in Schultz-Hoff and Others, C‑350/06 and C‑520/06, EU:C:2009:18, paragraph 30).

39. For the sake of completeness, it must be noted that, as recitals 3, 21 and 24 in the preamble to Regulation No 1782/2003 make clear, environmental protection forms part of the objectives of the single payment scheme. The Court has also held that environmental protection, one of the essential objectives of the European Union, must be regarded as forming part of the common agricultural policy (Case C-428/07 Horvath [2009] ECR I-6355, paragraph 29). Moreover, Article 2 point (1) of Regulation No 796/2004 expressly provides that arable land, and consequently agricultural areas pursuant to Article 2(a) of Regulation No 795/2004, is land maintained in good agricultural and environmental condition within the meaning of Article 5 of Regulation No 1782/2003.

54 In that regard, it is appropriate to recall that, in paragraph 17 of the judgment in Case C-249/89 Trave-Schiffahrtsgesellschaft [1991] ECR I-257, the Court held that, in the absence of particular expenses linked to the obtaining of an interest-free loan granted to a company by one of its members, the basis of assessment to be used under Article 5(1)(d) of Directive 69/335 for the calculation of capital duty is the amount of interest saved by the said company.

47. A standard term which allows such a unilateral adjustment must, however, meet the requirements of good faith, balance and transparency laid down by those directives.

58. The objective of undistorted competition on those markets is also pursued by the FEU Treaty, the preamble to which underlines the need for concerted action in order to guarantee, inter alia, fair competition, the ultimate aim of that action being to protect consumers. According to the Court’s settled case‑law, consumer protection constitutes an overriding reason in the public interest (Case C‑260/04 Commission v Italy [2007] ECR I‑7083, paragraph 27; Case C‑393/05 Commission v Austria [2007] ECR I‑10195, paragraph 52; and Case C‑458/08 Commission v Portugal [2010] ECR I‑11599, paragraph 89).

31. However, the discretion enjoyed by the Member States in this respect is not unlimited.

36. By contrast, activities which fall within the exercise of public powers are not of an economic nature justifying the application of the FEU Treaty rules of competition (see, to that effect, Case 107/84 Commission v Germany [1985] ECR 2655, paragraphs 14 and 15; Case C-364/92 SAT Fluggesellschaft [1994] ECR I-43, paragraph 30; and MOTOE , paragraph 24).

20 The position would be different only if the Court were called on to give a ruling on a problem of a hypothetical nature (see Case 244/80 Foglia [1981] ECR 3045, paragraphs 18 and 20, and Meilicke, cited above, paragraph 25).

32. In this connection, the Court has already held that the aim of subsequent verification is to check whether the statement of origin in an EUR.1 certificate which has been issued is correct (Case C‑12/92 Huygen and Others [1993] ECR I‑6381, paragraph 16, and Case C‑97/95 Pascoal & Filhos [1997] ECR I‑4209, paragraph 30).

39. For the sake of completeness, it must be noted that, as recitals 3, 21 and 24 in the preamble to Regulation No 1782/2003 make clear, environmental protection forms part of the objectives of the single payment scheme. The Court has also held that environmental protection, one of the essential objectives of the European Union, must be regarded as forming part of the common agricultural policy (Case C-428/07 Horvath [2009] ECR I-6355, paragraph 29). Moreover, Article 2 point (1) of Regulation No 796/2004 expressly provides that arable land, and consequently agricultural areas pursuant to Article 2(a) of Regulation No 795/2004, is land maintained in good agricultural and environmental condition within the meaning of Article 5 of Regulation No 1782/2003.

50. According to well-established case-law, restrictions on freedom of establishment that are applicable without discrimination on grounds of nationality may be justified by overriding reasons relating to the general interest, provided that the restrictions are appropriate for securing attainment of the objective pursued and do not go beyond what is necessary for attaining it ( Hartlauer , paragraph 44; Apothekerkammer des Saarlandes and Others , paragraph 25; and Blanco Pérez and Chao Gómez , paragraph 61).

61. It is settled case-law that restrictions on freedom of establishment which are applicable without discrimination on grounds of nationality may be justified by overriding reasons relating to the general interest, provided that the restrictions are appropriate for securing attainment of the objective pursued and do not go beyond what is necessary for attaining that objective ( Hartlauer , paragraph 44, and Apothekerkammer des Saarlandes and Others , paragraph 25).

31. As the Court has already held, the only articles in which the Treaty provides for derogations applicable in situations which may affect public security are Articles 30 EC, 39 EC, 46 EC, 58 EC, 64 EC, 296 EC and 297 EC, which deal with exceptional and clearly defined cases. It cannot be inferred from those articles that the Treaty contains an inherent general exception excluding all measures taken for reasons of public security from the scope of Community law. To recognise the existence of such an exception, regardless of the specific requirements laid down by the Treaty, might impair the binding nature of Community law and its uniform application (see, to that effect, Case 222/84 Johnston [1986] ECR 1651, paragraph 26, Sirdar , paragraph 16, and Kreil , paragraph 16).

31. It should be noted in that regard that the exceptions provided for in Article 5 of Directive 2001/29 are to be applied in a manner that is consistent with the principle of equal treatment, which is a general principle of EU law, enshrined in Article 20 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (see, with regard to the latter point, judgment in Glatzel , C‑356/12, EU:C:2014:350, paragraph 43).

47 Next, while Article 36 of the Treaty allows the maintenance of restrictions on the free movement of goods, justified on grounds of public morality, public policy or the protection of the health and life of animals, which constitute fundamental requirements recognised by Community law, recourse to Article 36 is nevertheless no longer possible where Community directives provide for harmonisation of the measures necessary to achieve the specific objective which would be furthered by reliance upon this provision (see, in particular, Case C-5/94 The Queen v MAFF ex parte Hedley Lomas [1996] ECR I-2553, paragraph 18). In such a case, the appropriate checks must be carried out and protective measures adopted within the framework outlined by the harmonising directive (see Case C-323/93 Centre d'Insémination de la Crespelle v Coopérative de la Mayenne [1994] ECR I-5077, paragraph 31). In that regard, the Member States must rely on mutual trust to carry out checks on their respective territories (see, most recently, The Queen v MAFF ex parte Hedley Lomas, paragraph 19).

5. By letter of 30 December 1999, that municipality informed Coname that, by decision of 21 December 1999, the municipal council had entrusted the service covering the management, distribution and maintenance of the methane gas distribution installations for the period from 1 January 2000 to 31 December 2005 to Padania. The latter company’s share capital is predominantly public, held by the province of Cremona and almost all the municipalities of that province. The Comune di Cingia de’ Botti holds a 0.97% share in the capital of that company.

24. It must be borne in mind that it follows from the need for uniform application of Community law and from the principle of equality that the terms of a provision of Community law which makes no express reference to the law of the Member States for the purpose of determining its meaning and scope must normally be given an autonomous and uniform interpretation throughout the Community, having regard to the context of the provision and the objective pursued by the legislation in question (see, inter alia, Case 327/82 Ekro [1984] ECR 107, paragraph 11; Case C-287/98 Linster [2000] ECR I-6917, paragraph 43; Case C-170/03 Feron [2005] ECR I-2299, paragraph 26; and Case C-316/05 Nokia [2006] ECR I-12083, paragraph 21).

76 In the present cases, the medical specialists who are members of the LSV provide, in their capacity as self-employed economic operators, services on a market, namely the market in specialist medical services. They are paid by their patients for the services they provide and assume the financial risks attached to the pursuit of their activity.

29. It is important to note that, by limiting the effects of the rights which a trade mark owner derives from Article 5 of Directive 89/104, Article 6 seeks to reconcile the fundamental interests of trade mark protection with those of free movement of goods and freedom to provide services in the common market in such a way that trade mark rights are able to fulfil their essential role in the system of undistorted competition which the Treaty seeks to establish and maintain (see, in particular, Case C-63/97 BMW [1999] ECR I-905, paragraph 62, and Case C-100/02 Gerolsteiner Brunnen [2004] ECR I-0000, paragraph 16).

21 In that regard, it should be stated that the operative part of an act is indissociably linked to the statement of reasons for it, so that, when it has to be interpreted, account must be taken of the reasons which led to its adoption.

43 The concepts ‘job’ and ‘rights acquired or in the process of being acquired’ referred to in Clause 5(1) and (2) must, failing any express reference to the law of the Member States for the purpose of determining their meaning and scope, normally be given an autonomous and uniform interpretation throughout the European Union, having regard to the context of the provisions and the objective pursued by the legislation in question (see, to that effect, judgment of 22 October 2009, Meerts, C‑116/08, EU:C:2009:645, paragraph 41).

54. Moreover, the Court has already held that, by treating the private use of goods treated by the taxable person as forming part of the assets of his business as a supply of services for consideration, Article 6(2)(a) of the Sixth Directive aims, first, to ensure equal treatment as between a taxable person, who was able to deduct the VAT on the acquisition or construction of those goods, and a final consumer, by preventing the former from enjoying an advantage to which he is not entitled by comparison with the latter who buys the goods and pays VAT on them, and, second, to ensure fiscal neutrality by ensuring a correspondence between deduction of input VAT and charging of output VAT (see, to that effect, Wollny , paragraphs 30 to 33).

39. By contrast, according to the appellant in the main proceedings, the Greek Government and the Commission, it follows from the Court’s case-law on Article 5(1) of the Brussels Convention that the consistent interpretation of the criterion of the place where the employee ‘habitually carries out his work’ has the result that that rule can also be applied in cases where work is carried out in several Member States. In particular, they point out that, for the purposes of specifically determining that place, the Court has made reference to the place from which the employee mainly carries out his obligations towards his employer ( Mulox IBC , paragraphs 21 to 23) or to the place in which he has established the effective centre of his working activities (Case C‑383/95 Rutten [1997] ECR I‑57, paragraph 23), or, in the absence of an office, to the place in which the employee carries out the majority of his work (Case C‑37/00 Weber [2002] ECR I‑2013, paragraph 42).

74. Nevertheless, contrary to the assertions made by API, it is clear from the case-law of the Court of Justice that the institution concerned may base its decisions in that regard on general presumptions which apply to certain categories of document, as considerations of a generally similar kind are likely to apply to applications for disclosure which relate to documents of the same nature (see Sweden and Turco v Council , paragraph 50, and Commission v Technische Glaswerke Ilmenau , paragraph 54).

65 Since Article 44(3) of the Association Agreement between the Communities and Poland and Article 45(3) of the Association Agreement between the Communities and the Czech Republic apply only to persons who are exclusively self-employed, in accordance with the final sentence of Article 44(4)(a)(i) and of Article 45(4)(a)(i) of those Agreements respectively, it is necessary to determine whether the activity planned in the host Member State by persons benefiting from those provisions is an activity performed in an employed or a self-employed capacity (see Gloszczuk, paragraph 57, and Barkoci and Malik, paragraph 61).

53. However, even though it has a broad discretion, the Community legislature must base its choice on objective criteria. Furthermore, in assessing the burdens associated with various possible measures, it must examine whether objectives pursued by the measure chosen are such as to justify even substantial negative economic consequences for certain operators (see, to that effect, Joined Cases C‑96/03 and C‑97/03 Tempelman and van Schaijk [2005] ECR I‑1895, paragraph 48; Case C‑86/03 Greece v Commission [2005] ECR I‑10979, paragraph 96; and Case C‑504/04 Agrarproduktion Staebelow [2006] ECR I‑679, paragraph 37).

42 The Community rules and the agreements concluded between the Community, Ukraine and the SEIB provide for a division of powers between the Commission and the agent appointed by Ukraine to arrange the purchase of wheat. It is for that agent - in the present case, Ukrimpex - to select the other contracting party by means of an invitation to tender and to negotiate and conclude the contract. The Commission's role is merely to verify that the conditions for Community financing are fulfilled and, where necessary, to acknowledge, for the purposes of disbursement of the loan, that such contracts are in conformity with the provisions of Decision 91/658 and with the agreements concluded with Ukraine and the SEIB. It is not for the Commission, therefore, to assess the commercial contract with reference to any other criteria.

27. It follows that a situation such as that of Mr Gaydarov, as described in paragraphs 15 to 18 of this judgment, is covered by the right of citizens of the Union to move and reside freely in the Member States and therefore falls within the scope of Directive 2004/38.

129. Furthermore, the fact that, in the context of applying European Union environmental legislation, certain matters contributing to the pollution of the air, sea or land territory of the Member States originate in an event which occurs partly outside that territory is not such as to call into question, in the light of the principles of customary international law capable of being relied upon in the main proceedings, the full applicability of European Union law in that territory (see to this effect, with regard to the application of competition law, Ahlström Osakeyhtiö and Others v Commission , paragraphs 15 to 18, and, with regard to hydrocarbons accidentally spilled beyond a Member State’s territorial sea, Case C‑188/07 Commune de Mesquer [2008] ECR I‑4501, paragraphs 60 to 62).

45. In that regard, it must be observed that the leasing of vehicles is a supply of services within the meaning of Article 6(1) of the Sixth Directive, in respect of which the place of taxation is determined in Article 9.

19. In order to determine whether a body is a court or tribunal within the meaning of that provision, which is a question governed by Community law alone, the Court takes into account a number of factors, such as whether the body concerned is established by law, whether it is permanent, whether its jurisdiction is compulsory, whether its procedure is inter partes, whether it applies rules of law and whether it is independent (see, in particular, Case 61/65 Vaassen-Göbbels [1966] ECR 261; Case C-54/96 Dorsch Consult [1997] ECR I-4961, paragraph 23; and Case C-416/96 Nour Eddline El-Yassini [1999] ECR I-1209, paragraph 17).

17 In order to determine whether a body making a reference is a court or tribunal for the purposes of that provision, which is a question governed by Community law alone, the Court takes into account a number of factors, such as whether the body concerned is established by law, whether it is permanent, whether its jurisdiction is compulsory, whether its procedure is inter partes, whether it applies rules of law and whether it is independent (see, in particular, Case 61/65 Vaassen (née Göbbels) [1966] ECR 261 and Case C-54/96 Dorsch Consult v Bundesbaugesellschaft Berlin [1997] ECR I-4961, paragraph 23).

31 The Court of First Instance first of all referred, in paragraph 67 of the contested judgment, to the settled case-law to the effect that the purpose of the obligation to give reasons for an individual decision is to enable the Community judicature to review the legality of the decision and to provide the party concerned with an adequate indication as to whether the decision is well founded or whether it may be vitiated by some defect enabling its validity to be challenged, the scope of that obligation being dependent on the nature of the act in question and on the context in which it was adopted (see, in particular, besides the case-law cited by the Court of First Instance, Case C-22/94 Irish Farmers Association and Others v Ministry for Agriculture, Food and Forestry, Ireland, and the Attorney General [1997] ECR I-1809, paragraph 39).

39 It is settled case-law that the statement of reasons required by Article 190 of the Treaty must show clearly and unequivocally the reasoning of the institution which enacted the measure so as to inform the persons concerned of the justification for the measure adopted and to enable the Court to exercise its powers of review. It is not necessary, however, for details of all relevant factual and legal aspects to be given, in so far as the question whether the statement of the grounds for a decision meets the requirements of Article 190 of the Treaty must be assessed with regard not only to its wording but also to its context and to all the legal rules governing the matter in question (see Case C-478/93 Netherlands v Commission [1995] ECR I-3081, paragraphs 48 and 49).

45. Moreover, the incentive effect of a State aid measure falls within the examination of its compatibility with the internal market (see, to that effect, Case C‑544/09 P Germany v Commission [2011] ECR I‑0000, paragraph 68). Accordingly, it must be added that the circumstance that the Law of 22 January 1996 on investment subsidies might have had an incentive effect for the investment at issue is not relevant for determining when aid must be considered to be granted.

148. However, that is a complaint directed against a ground included in the judgment purely for the sake of completeness which cannot lead to the judgment being set aside and is therefore nugatory (see, in particular, Case C-184/01 P Hirschfeldt v EEA [2002] ECR I-10173, paragraph 48 and the case-law cited).

20. Il importe de relever, en premier lieu, que l’article 63, paragraphe 1, TFUE interdit de façon générale les restrictions aux mouvements de capitaux entre les États membres (voir, notamment, arrêts Mattner, C‑510/08, EU:C:2010:216, point 18 et jurisprudence citée, ainsi que Missionswerk Werner Heukelbach, C‑25/10, EU:C:2011:65, point 21).

104. En l’espèce, dans le cadre de l’appréciation de la gravité de l’infraction, le Tribunal a, au point 252 de l’arrêt attaqué, tenu à rappeler à juste titre sa jurisprudence selon laquelle les ententes horizontales en matière de prix ont toujours été considérées comme faisant partie des infractions les plus graves au droit communautaire de la concurrence. Il a en outre souligné, au point 253 dudit arrêt, que la Commission avait également fondé son appréciation sur d’autres éléments, à savoir notamment la constatation que l’infraction devait être qualifiée de très grave de par sa nature même. Enfin, compte tenu des considérations effectuées aux points 245 à 253 de l’arrêt attaqué, le Tribunal a tiré sa conclusion au point 254 de cet arrêt, dans lequel celui-ci juge que c’est à bon droit que la Commission a qualifié l’infraction de très grave.

15. In that regard it should be recalled that in proceedings under Article 267 TFEU, which are based on a clear separation of functions between the national courts and the Court of Justice, it is solely for the national court before which the dispute has been brought, and which must assume responsibility for the subsequent judicial decision, to determine, in the light of the particular circumstances of the case, both the need for a preliminary ruling in order to enable it to deliver judgment and the relevance of the questions which it submits to the Court. Consequently, where the questions referred concern the interpretation of European Union law, the Court of Justice is, in principle, bound to give a ruling (see, inter alia, Case C‑561/11 Fédération Cynologique Internationale [2013] ECR I-0000, paragraph 26 and the case-law cited).

27 When a taxable person thus decides to retain a capital item entirely within his private assets, whether or not he uses it for both business and private purposes, no portion of the input VAT due or paid on the acquisition of the item is therefore deductible.

55. It is settled case-law that any pecuniary charge, whatever its designation and mode of application, which is imposed unilaterally on goods by reason of the fact that they cross a frontier, and which is not a customs duty in the strict sense, constitutes a charge having equivalent effect within the meaning of Articles 23 EC and 25 EC, even though such pecuniary charge is not levied for the benefit of the State (see, in particular, Joined Cases 2/69 and 3/69 Sociaal Fonds voor de Diamantarbeiders [1969] ECR 211, paragraph 18; Case 158/82 Commission v Denmark [1983] ECR 3573, paragraph 18; Case C‑130/93 Lamaire [1994] ECR I‑3215, paragraph 13; Joined Cases C‑441/98 and C‑442/98 Michaïlidis [2000] ECR I‑7145, paragraph 15, and Case C-234/99 Nygård [2002] ECR I‑3657, paragraph 19).

63. Next, with regard to whether a requirement for residence for a continuous period of five years, as laid down in the national legislation at issue in the main proceedings, is contrary to the principle of non-discrimination based on nationality, it must be borne in mind that that principle requires that comparable situations must not be treated differently and that different situations must not be treated in the same way unless such treatment is objectively justified (see, inter alia, Case C‑303/05 Advocaten voor de Wereld [2007] ECR I‑3633, paragraph 56).

39. As the Court has already held, legislation such as the VGVG at issue in the main proceedings the aim of which is to prohibit or make subject to specific conditions the acquisition of land for the purposes of establishing secondary residences, must comply with the provisions of the EC Treaty on the free movement of capital (see, to that effect, Konle , paragraph 22; Reisch and Others , paragraph 28; and Salzmann , paragraph 39).

27 The Belgian Government stated in its observations that where the RTT refuses to grant the type-approval in question an appeal lies to the Belgian Conseil d' État (Council of State).

24 Moreover, as noted in paragraph 6 above, the Commission's initial decision to raise no objections to the aid in issue was based on two grounds, one of which was specifically that there were no problems of overcapacity. When the Court said, at paragraph 38 of its judgment in Cook, that the Commission should have initiated the procedure under Article 93(2) of the Treaty in order to ascertain, after obtaining all the requisite opinions, whether its assessment in that regard was correct, that was an implicit acceptance that such assessment might relate to such a problem.

16 Account must be taken, first, of the considerable differences that exist between the national legal orders as regards the conditions and procedures for rectification of a date of birth and, second, of the fact that, for the time being, the Member States have neither harmonized the matter nor established a system of mutual recognition of such decisions, as has been done for judgments falling within the scope of the Convention of 27 September 1968 on Jurisdiction and the Enforcement of Judgments in Civil and Commercial Matters (OJ 1972 L 299, p. 32).

46. It should be recalled in this regard, first, that the preservation of the balanced allocation of the power to impose taxes between Member States is a legitimate objective recognised by the Court (see, to that effect, Marks & Spencer , paragraph 45; Case C‑470/04 N [2006] ECR I‑7409, paragraph 42; Case C‑231/05 Oy AA [2007] ECR I‑6373, paragraph 51; and Case C‑414/06 Lidl Belgium [2008] ECR I‑3601, paragraph 31).

47 In the light of the foregoing, the answer to the questions referred by the VAT and Duties Tribunal must be that, on a proper construction of Article 26 of the Sixth Directive, where a trader subject to that article effects, in return for a package price, transactions consisting of services supplied partly by himself and partly by other taxable persons, the VAT scheme under that article applies solely to the services supplied by third parties. A trader may not be required to calculate the part of the package corresponding to the in-house services by the actual cost method where it is possible to identify that part of the package on the basis of the market value of services similar to those which form part of the package.

38. According to the Court’s case-law, where a transaction comprises a bundle of features and acts, regard must be had to all the circumstances in which the transaction in question takes place in order to determine whether there were two or more distinct transactions or one single transaction (see, to that effect, in particular Levob Verzekeringen and OV Bank , paragraph 19, and Aktiebolaget NN , paragraph 21). Therefore, contrary to what Don Bosco and the Netherlands Government claim, account must be taken of additional supplies, such as the ones described in the second and third questions referred for a preliminary ruling, by the vendor of the immovable property, in order to determine whether the transaction at issue is exempt from VAT.

58. For all those marine areas, UNCLOS seeks to strike a fair balance between the interests of States as coastal States and the interests of States as flag States, which may conflict. In this connection, as is apparent from numerous provisions of the Convention, such as Articles 2, 33, 34(2), 56 and 89, the Contracting Parties provide for the establishment of the substantive and territorial limits to their respective sovereign rights.

47. Consequently, it is necessary to establish whether there is a sufficiently direct link between, on the one hand, the advantage given to the beneficiary and, on the other, a reduction of the State budget or a sufficiently concrete economic risk of burdens on that budget (see, to that effect, judgment in Bouygues and Bouygues Télécom v Commission and Others and Commission v France and Others , EU:C:2013:175, paragraph 109).

33. That interpretation is, moreover, in accordance with the objective of Article 27 as it is set out in the first recital in the preamble to Regulation No 3357/91, namely that the relief provided for in that provision aims at administrative simplification of customs procedures.

4 THIS CLAIM CONCERNS THE REJECTION OF THE FIRST SUBMISSION BY THE COURT IN PARAGRAPH 12 OF THE CONTESTED JUDGMENT , WHICH READS : ' ' IT MUST BE OBSERVED IN THE FIRST PLACE THAT , CONTRARY TO THE APPLICANT ' S STATEMENTS , THE GROUNDS ON WHICH THE CONTESTED DECISION IS BASED DO NOT INCLUDE THE FACT THAT MR GEIST REFUSED ALL POSTS OFFERED TO HIM . ALTHOUGH THE DIRECTOR GENERAL OF THE JOINT RESEARCH CENTRE POINTED OUT THAT THE APPLICANT HAD REFUSED A FIRST POST , HE SUBSEQUENTLY CONFINED HIMSELF TO OBSERVING THAT THE APPLICANT ' S RESERVATIONS AND HIS RETICENT ATTITUDE HAD LED THE DIRECTOR RESPONSIBLE TO WITHDRAW THE OFFER OF A SECOND POST MADE TO HIM . NEITHER THE DOCUMENTS IN THE FILE NOR THE ARGUMENTS BEFORE THE COURT HAVE SHOWN THOSE OBSERVATIONS TO BE WRONG . THE CONTESTED DECISION CANNOT THEREFORE BE REGARDED AS BASED ON SUBSTANTIALLY INCORRECT FACTS AND THE FIRST SUBMISSIONS MUST THEREFORE BE DISMISSED . ' '

28 In order to determine whether the services supplied constitute independent services or a single service it is necessary to examine the characteristic elements of the transaction concerned (judgments of 17 January 2013, BGŻ Leasing, C‑224/11, EU:C:2013:15, paragraph 32, and of 16 April 2015, Wojskowa Agencja Mieszkaniowa w Warszawie, C‑42/14, EU:C:2015:229, paragraph 32).

38 In the context of the procedure laid down by Article 93, the preliminary stage of the procedure for reviewing aid under Article 93(3) of the Treaty, which is intended merely to allow the Commission to form a prima facie opinion on the partial or complete conformity of the aid in question, must therefore be distinguished from the examination under Article 93(2), which is designed to enable the Commission to be fully informed of all the facts of the case (Case C-198/91 Cook v Commission [1993] ECR I-2487, paragraph 22, and Case C-225/91 Matra v Commission [1993] ECR I-3203, paragraph 16).

62. However, when such an agreement allows, but does not require, a Member State to adopt a measure which appears to be contrary to European Union law, the Member State must refrain from adopting such a measure (see, to this effect, Evans Medical and Macfarlan Smith , paragraph 32, and Centro-Com , paragraph 60).

59. The Court has thus held that leftover rock and sand residue from ore‑dressing operations in the working of a mine are not classified as waste for the purposes of Directive 75/442 where their holder uses them lawfully for the necessary filling‑in of the galleries of that mine and provides sufficient guarantees as to the identification and actual use of those substances (see, to that effect, AvestaPolarit Chrome , paragraph 43). The Court has also ruled that petroleum coke which is produced intentionally or in the course of producing other petroleum fuels in an oil refinery and is certain to be used as fuel to meet the energy needs of the refinery and those of other industries does not constitute waste within the meaning of that directive (order in Case C‑235/02 Saetti and Frediani [2004] ECR I‑1005, paragraph 47).

16 It should be remembered at the outset that the principle of freedom to provide services established in Article 59 of the Treaty, which is one of its fundamental principles, includes the freedom for the recipients of services to go to another Member State in order to receive a service there, without being obstructed by restrictions, and that tourists must be regarded as recipients of services (see Case 186/87 Cowan v Trésor Public [1989] ECR 195, paragraph 15).

15 It has consistently been held that any measure capable of hindering, directly or indirectly, actually or potentially, intra-Community trade constitutes a measure having an effect equivalent to a quantitative restriction (Case 8/74 Procureur du Roi v Dassonville [1974] ECR 837, paragraph 5, and Case C-412/93 Leclerc-Siplec v TF1 Publicité and M6 Publicité [1995] ECR I-179, paragraph 18).

39. For the sake of completeness, it must be noted that, as recitals 3, 21 and 24 in the preamble to Regulation No 1782/2003 make clear, environmental protection forms part of the objectives of the single payment scheme. The Court has also held that environmental protection, one of the essential objectives of the European Union, must be regarded as forming part of the common agricultural policy (Case C-428/07 Horvath [2009] ECR I-6355, paragraph 29). Moreover, Article 2 point (1) of Regulation No 796/2004 expressly provides that arable land, and consequently agricultural areas pursuant to Article 2(a) of Regulation No 795/2004, is land maintained in good agricultural and environmental condition within the meaning of Article 5 of Regulation No 1782/2003.

67. Thus, the Court has already held that, while certain objective and subjective factors connected with the concept of fault under a national legal system may be relevant, in the light of the case-law referred to in paragraph 51 of the present judgment, for the purpose of determining whether or not a given breach of EU law is sufficiently serious, the fact remains that the obligation to make reparation for loss or damage caused to individuals cannot depend upon a condition based on any concept of fault going beyond that of a sufficiently serious breach of EU law. Imposition of such a supplementary condition would be tantamount to calling in question the right to reparation founded on the EU legal order (see Brasserie du Pêcheur and Factortame , paragraphs 78 to 80, and Haim , paragraph 39).

39. Thus it is the acquisition of the goods by a taxable person acting as such that determines the application of the VAT system and therefore of the deduction mechanism (see, to that effect, Lennartz , paragraph 15, and Eon Aset Menidjmunt , paragraph 57).

27. It is worth adding also that such a reading of Article 3(1)(c)(ii) of the Directive appears to be confirmed by the interpretation adopted by the Court in respect of other areas of Community law. Thus, as 01051 Telecom points out, it is apparent from the case-law of the Court that the crediting to the account of the own resources of the European Communities constitutes the decisive criterion for establishing whether a Member State which is required to place a sum of money at the disposal of the Commission has failed to fulfil its obligations and whether, consequently, it is required to pay interest for late payment (see, to that effect, Case C‑363/00 Commission v Italy [2003] ECR I‑5767, paragraphs 42, 43 and 46).

281. That limit is therefore one which is uniformly applicable to all undertakings and arrived at according to the size of each of them and seeks to ensure that the fines are not excessive or disproportionate.

44. According to the settled case-law of the Court, although direct taxation falls within their competence, the Member States must none the less exercise that competence consistently with European Union law (see, inter alia, Case C‑374/04 Test Claimants in Class IV of the ACT Group Litigation [2006] ECR I‑11673, paragraph 36; Case C‑379/05 Amurta [2007] ECR I‑9569, paragraph 16; Case C‑540/07 Commission v Italy [2009] ECR I‑10983, paragraph 28; and Case C‑487/08 Commission v Spain [2010] ECR I‑0000, paragraph 37).

30 Consequently, the answer to the first question must be that payment facilities in respect of social security contributions granted in a discretionary manner to an undertaking by the body responsible for collecting such contributions constitute State aid for the purposes of Article 92(1) of the Treaty if, having regard to the size of the economic advantage so conferred, the undertaking would manifestly have been unable to obtain comparable facilities from a private creditor in the same situation vis-à-vis that undertaking as the collecting body.

9 IT MUST THEREFORE BE CONCLUDED , AS THE COURT HAS HELD WITH REGARD TO THE COMMON ORGANIZATION OF THE MARKET IN EGGS ( JUDGMENT OF 13 NOVEMBER 1978 IN BUSSONE , CASE 31/78 ( 1978 ) ECR 2429 ), THAT THE COMMUNITY RULES LEAVE MEMBER STATES FREE TO RESOLVE THE PROBLEM OF FINANCING THE CONTROLS .

96 In that regard, it should be observed that, contrary to what LVM and DSM claim, the differences between the operative parts of the PVC I and the PVC II decisions and the arguments relating to limitation do not constitute a new objection upheld by the Commission in the PVC II decision. The appellants do not state which of the alleged amendments of fact and law indicate, in their view, that new objections were taken into account; nor do they show how those amendments actually relate to such objections.

52. It should also be remembered that, in the absence of any unifying or harmonising Community measures, Member States retain the power to define, by treaty or unilaterally, the criteria for allocating their powers of taxation (Case C‑336/96 Gilly [1998] ECR I‑2793, paragraphs 24 and 30; Case C‑470/04 N [2006] ECR I-7409, paragraph 44; Case C‑513/04 Kerkhaert and Morres [2006] ECR I-10967, paragraphs 22 and 23; and Test Claimants in the Thin Cap Group Litigation , paragraph 49).

61. In the circumstances of the dispute in the main proceedings, it must again be remembered that, although the concept of management does not imply that the farmer has unlimited power over the area in question when using it for agricultural purposes, he is nevertheless not fully subject to the instructions of the lessor (see, to that effect, judgment in Landkreis Bad Dürkheim , C‑61/09, EU:C:2010:606, paragraphs 61 and 63).

17 In accordance with the Court’s settled case-law, the question whether a Member State has failed to fulfil its obligations must be determined by reference to the situation prevailing in the Member State at the end of the period laid down in the reasoned opinion, and the Court cannot take account of any subsequent changes (judgment of 10 April 2014, Commission v Italy, C‑85/13, not published, EU:C:2014:251, paragraph 31 and the case-law cited).

24 Where there are objective factors which lead the host State to consider that the certificate produced contains manifest inaccuracies, that State may, if it so wishes, approach the Member State from which the beneficiary comes with a view to requesting additional information .

22. Thus the Court has held that, although certain judgments in actions between a public authority and a person governed by private law may come within the scope of the Brussels Convention, it is otherwise where the public authority is acting in the exercise of its public powers (LTU , paragraph 4; Rüffer , paragraph 8, and Baten , paragraph 30).

À cet égard, il importe de relever que la Cour a jugé qu’il ne saurait être exigé de la Commission que, après avoir établi que la société mère doit être tenue pour responsable de l’infraction commise par sa filiale, elle apporte la démonstration que chaque filiale composant le groupe ne détermine pas de manière autonome son comportement sur le marché. L’imputation d’une infraction commise par une filiale à la société mère et l’interdiction d’infliger une amende excédant 10 % du chiffre d’affaires de l’entreprise concernée constituent deux questions distinctes répondant à des finalités différentes. Le cas échéant, c’est à la société qui considère que le chiffre d’affaires consolidé ne reflète pas la réalité économique qu’il appartient de présenter les éléments de nature à réfuter l’existence d’un pouvoir de contrôle de la société mère (arrêt du 26 novembre 2013, Groupe Gascogne/Commission, C‑58/12 P, EU:C:2013:770, point 57).

28 Although Article 7 of the Charter cannot be interpreted as depriving the Member States of the margin of appreciation available to them when examining applications for family reunification, the provisions of Directive 2003/86 must nonetheless, in the course of such an examination, be interpreted and applied in the light of — inter alia — Article 7 of the Charter, as is moreover apparent from recital 2 in the preamble to that directive, which requires the Member States to examine applications for reunification with a view to promoting family life (see, to that effect, judgment in O and Others, C‑356/11 and C‑357/11, EU:C:2012:776, paragraphs 79 and 80).

49. By order of 4 February 1997, the Court stayed the proceedings in the present case pending judgment by the Court of First Instance in Cases T-132/96 and T-143/96.

42. As regards in particular the importance of contractual terms in categorising a transaction as a taxable transaction, it is necessary to bear in mind the case-law of the Court according to which consideration of economic and commercial realities is a fundamental criterion for the application of the common system of VAT (see, to that effect, Joined Cases C‑53/09 and C‑55/09 Loyalty Management UK and Baxi Group [2010] ECR I‑9187, paragraphs 39 and 40 and the case-law cited).

23 IT FOLLOWS FROM THAT PROVISION THAT THE IMPLEMENTATION OF A DIRECTIVE DOES NOT NECESSARILY REQUIRE LEGISLATIVE ACTION IN EACH MEMBER STATE . IN PARTICULAR THE EXISTENCE OF GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF CONSTITUTIONAL OR ADMINISTRATIVE LAW MAY RENDER IMPLEMENTATION BY SPECIFIC LEGISLATION SUPERFLUOUS , PROVIDED HOWEVER THAT THOSE PRINCIPLES GUARANTEE THAT THE NATIONAL AUTHORITIES WILL IN FACT APPLY THE DIRECTIVE FULLY AND THAT , WHERE THE DIRECTIVE IS INTENDED TO CREATE RIGHTS FOR INDIVIDUALS , THE LEGAL POSITION ARISING FROM THOSE PRINCIPLES IS SUFFICIENTLY PRECISE AND CLEAR AND THE PERSONS CONCERNED ARE MADE FULLY AWARE OF THEIR RIGHTS AND , WHERE APPROPRIATE , AFFORDED THE POSSIBILITY OF RELYING ON THEM BEFORE THE NATIONAL COURTS . THAT LAST CONDITION IS OF PARTICULAR IMPORTANCE WHERE THE DIRECTIVE IN QUESTION IS INTENDED TO ACCORD RIGHTS TO NATIONALS OF OTHER MEMBER STATES BECAUSE THOSE NATIONALS ARE NOT NORMALLY AWARE OF SUCH PRINCIPLES .

44. It follows from the foregoing that, as regards the recapitalisation of Seleco in 1994, neither Friulia nor REL acted like a private investor operating under normal market conditions. A private investor would not, under those conditions, have made the capital contributions made by Friulia or REL to an undertaking in difficulty such as Seleco without having a credible and realistic restructuring plan or taking social concerns into account (see, as regards the latter point, Case C-303/88 Italy v Commission , cited above, paragraphs 18 and 24), and thus not seeking to ensure the likelihood of profitability for such contributions.

59. It is therefore incumbent upon the national authorities and courts to refuse the right of deduction where it is established, on the basis of objective evidence, that that right is being relied on for fraudulent or abusive ends (see, to that effect, Joined Cases C-439/04 and C-440/04 Kittel and Recolta Recycling [2006] ECR I-6161, paragraph 55; Mahagében and Dávid , paragraph 42; and Bonik , paragraph 37).

50. In paragraph 79 of its judgment in Case C-470/99 Universale-Bau and Others [2002] ECR I-11617, the Court held that Directive 89/665 does not preclude national legislation which provides that any application for review of a contracting authority's decision must be commenced within a time-limit laid down to that effect and that any irregularity in the award procedure relied upon in support of such application must be raised within the same period, if it is not to be out of time, with the result that, when that period has passed, it is no longer possible to challenge such a decision or to raise such an irregularity, provided that the time-limit in question is reasonable.

12 In paragraph 57, the Court of First Instance held that it followed that, even if fault on the part of the Commission were established, the Community would not incur liability unless the appellant could show that he had actually suffered harm.

19. According to settled case-law, the provisions of the TFEU on freedom of establishment do not apply to a situation, all the elements of which are confined within one single Member State (see, to that effect, Joined Cases C‑54/88, C‑91/88 and C‑14/89 Nino and Others [1990] ECR I‑3537, paragraph 11; Case C‑134/94 Esso Española [1995] ECR I‑4223, paragraph 17; and Case C‑389/05 Commission v France [2008] ECR I‑5397, paragraph 49).

21 The plea that the Directive was not adopted on the proper legal basis must therefore be rejected. The plea of infringement of the obligation to state reasons

85. That being so, the interpretation of Regulation No 1408/71 given by the Court in answer to the first question must be understood without prejudice to the result of the possible applicability of provisions of primary law. The fact that national legislation may be in conformity with secondary law, in this case Regulation No 1408/71, does not have the effect of removing it from the scope of the provisions of the Treaty (see, inter alia, Case C‑372/04 Watts [2006] ECR I‑4325, paragraph 47; von Chamier-Glisczinski , paragraph 66; and Commission v Spain , paragraph 45).

À moins qu’elle ne soit renversée, une telle présomption implique, dès lors, que l’exercice effectif d’une influence déterminante par la société mère sur sa filiale soit considéré comme établi et fonde la Commission à tenir la première responsable du comportement de la seconde, sans avoir à produire une quelconque preuve additionnelle (voir, en ce sens, arrêt 27 avril 2017, Akzo Nobel et Akzo Nobel Chemicals/Commission, C‑516/15 P, EU:C:2017:314, point 55).

72. The Court of Justice thus has no jurisdiction to establish the facts or, in principle, to examine the evidence which the General Court accepted in support of those facts. Provided that the evidence has been properly obtained and the general principles of law and the rules of procedure in relation to the burden of proof and the taking of evidence have been observed, it is for the General Court alone to assess the value which should be attached to the evidence produced to it. Save where the clear sense of the evidence has been distorted, that appraisal does not therefore constitute a point of law which is subject as such to review by the Court of Justice ( General Motors v Commission , paragraph 52; Case C‑113/04 P Technische Unie v Commission [2006] ECR I‑8831, paragraph 83; and judgment of 31 January 2008 in Case C‑103/07 P Angelidis v Parliament , paragraph 46).

18 Where a claim for an award has been submitted to an institution of a Member State, it is incumbent on that institution, pursuant to Article 5 of the Treaty and Article 84 of Regulation No 1408/71, to cooperate with the competent institutions of the other Member States in order to proceed with the award and apportionment.

25. In that regard, it must be noted that the sign ‘Edi Koblmüller’, which reproduces only a small part of the BergSpechte trade mark, cannot be considered to be identical with that trade mark. A sign is identical with a trade mark only where it reproduces, without any modification or addition, all the elements constituting the trade mark or where, viewed as a whole, it contains differences so insignificant that they may go unnoticed by an average consumer (Case C-291/00 LTJ Diffusion [2003] ECR I-2799, paragraph 54).

53. Admittedly, if the grounds of a judgment of the General Court disclose an infringement of EU law but its operative part is shown to be well founded on other legal grounds, such an infringement is not capable of bringing about the annulment of that judgment, and a substitution of grounds must be made (see, to that effect, judgment in Comitato ‘Venezia vuole vivere’ and Othe rs v Commission , C‑71/09 P, C‑73/09 P and C‑76/09 P, EU:C:2011:368, paragraph 118 and the case-law cited).

99 Second, the appellant's argument concerning the consequences of joining the information exchange system on a new trader's decision-making autonomy is, in substance, identical to the argument already considered in connection with the first part of this ground of appeal. It is sufficient in this regard to refer to paragraphs 80 to 91 of this judgment.

49. That interpretation is reinforced by the objective of Article 54 of the CISA, which is to ensure that no one is prosecuted for the same acts in several Contracting States on account of his having exercised his right to freedom of movement.

44. With regard, first, to the fact that the number of concessions to operate gaming establishments is limited, it is clear that such a limitation involves obstacles to the freedom of establishment and the freedom to provide services ( Placanica and Others , paragraphs 50 and 51).

16 THE SAME QUESTION HAS ALREADY FORMED THE SUBJECT-MATTER OF THE JUDGMENT OF 16 FEBRUARY 1978 ( CASE 88/77 , SCHONENBERG , ( 1978 ) ECR 473 ). IN THAT JUDGMENT , WHICH , LIKE THE PRESENT CASE , CONCERNED A BREACH OF NATIONAL FISHERY PROVISIONS , THE COURT FOUND THAT WHERE CRIMINAL PROCEEDINGS ARE BROUGHT BY VIRTUE OF A NATIONAL MEASURE WHICH IS HELD TO BE CONTRARY TO COMMUNITY LAW A CONVICTION IN THOSE PROCEEDINGS IS ALSO INCOMPATIBLE WITH THAT LAW .

17. The Court has already held that the various grounds for refusal of registration listed in Article 3 of the trade marks directive must be interpreted in the light of the public interest underlying each of them (see, to that effect, judgment in Windsurfing Chiemsee , C‑108/97 and C‑109/97, EU:C:1999:230, paragraphs 25 to 27, and judgment in Philips , C‑299/99, EU:C:2002:377, paragraph 77).

87 As is pointed out more generally in recital 12 of Directive 2009/28, the use of agricultural material such as manure, slurry and other animal and organic waste for biogas production has, in view of the high greenhouse gas emission saving potential, significant environmental advantages in terms of heat and power production and its use as biofuel.

48. It should be recalled that, according to settled case-law, each Member State is bound to implement directives in a manner that fully meets the requirements of clarity and certainty in legal situations imposed by the Community legislature, in the interests of the persons concerned. To that end, the provisions of a directive must be implemented with unquestionable binding force and with the requisite specificity, precision and clarity (see, inter alia, Case C‑354/99 Commission v Ireland [2001] ECR I‑7657, paragraph 27). The provisions intended to transpose a directive must thus create a legal situation that is sufficiently clear, precise and transparent that individuals can ascertain the full extent of their rights and obligations and, where appropriate, rely on those rights before the national courts (see, inter alia, Case C‑131/88 Commission v Germany [1991] ECR I‑825, paragraph 6).

6 It should be pointed out first of all that according to the case-law of the Court (see, in particular, the judgment in Case 363/85 Commission v Italy [1987] ECR 1733), the transposition of a directive into domestic law does not necessarily require that its provisions be incorporated formally and verbatim in express, specific legislation; a general legal context may, depending on the content of the directive, be adequate for the purpose provided that it does indeed guarantee the full application of the directive in a sufficiently clear and precise manner so that, where the directive is intended to create rights for individuals, the persons concerned can ascertain the full extent of their rights and, where appropriate, rely on them before the national courts.

60 In accordance with the Court’s settled case-law, the children concerned in the disputes in the main proceedings may, as nationals of a Member State, rely on the rights pertaining to their status as Union citizens conferred on them by Article 20 TFEU, including against the Member State of which they are nationals (see, to that effect, judgments of 5 May 2011, McCarthy, C‑434/09, EU:C:2011:277, paragraph 48; of 15 November 2011, Dereci and Others, C‑256/11, EU:C:2011:734, paragraph 63; and of 6 December 2012, O and Others, C‑356/11 and C‑357/11, EU:C:2012:776, paragraphs 43 and 44).

61. Il importe de rappeler, à cet égard, que, selon une jurisprudence établie, un motif erroné ne saurait justifier l’annulation de l’acte qui en est entaché s’il revêt un caractère surabondant et qu’il existe d’autres motifs qui suffisent à le fonder (voir, en ce sens, arrêt du 12 juillet 1990, COFAZ/Commission, C‑169/84, Rec. p. I‑3083, point 16, et, par analogie, arrêt du 12 novembre 1996, Ojha/Commission, C‑294/95 P, Rec. p. I‑5863, point 52).

27. It is settled case-law that the procedure provided for by Article 234 EC is an instrument of cooperation between the Court of Justice and national courts (see, inter alia, Case C-343/90 Lourenço Dias [1992] ECR I-4673, paragraph 14, and Case C-314/01 Siemens and ARGE Telekom [2004] ECR I-0000, paragraph 33, and the case-law cited therein).

26. It is accordingly not possible to uphold the proposition upon which the Commission’s action is founded, which consists in contending that, despite the fact that the basic premium may be set entirely freely, the French bonus-malus system is contrary to the principle of freedom to set rates on the sole ground that it has effects on the alteration of that premium.

39. Article 191(2) TFEU provides that EU policy on the environment is to aim at a high level of protection and is to be based, inter alia, on the ‘polluter pays’ principle. That provision thus does no more than define the general environmental objectives of the European Union, since Article 192 TFEU confers on the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union, acting in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure, responsibility for deciding what action is to be taken in order to attain those objectives (see judgments in ERG and Others , EU:C:2010:126, paragraph 45; ERG and Others , EU:C:2010:127, paragraph 38; and order in Buzzi Unicem and Others , C‑478/08 and C‑479/08, EU:C:2010:129, paragraph 35).

45. Article 174 EC states that Community policy on the environment is to aim at a high level of protection and is based, inter alia, on the principle that the polluter should pay. That provision is therefore confined to defining the general environmental objectives of the Community, since Article 175 EC confers on the Council of the European Union responsibility for deciding what action is to be taken, where appropriate following the codecision procedure with the European Parliament (see, to that effect, Case C‑379/92 Peralta [1994] ECR I‑3453, paragraphs 57 and 58).

34. Where a national measure relates to the freedom to provide services and the free movement of capital at the same time, it is necessary to consider to what extent the exercise of those fundamental liberties is affected and whether, in the circumstances of the main proceedings, one of those prevails over the other (see by analogy Case C-71/02 Karner [2004] ECR I-3025, paragraph 47; Case C‑36/02 Omega [2004] ECR I-9609, paragraph 27; and the judgment of the EFTA Court in Case E-1/00 State Management Debt Agency/Islandsbanki-FBA [2000] EFTA Court Report 2000-2001, p. 8, paragraph 32). The Court will in principle examine the measure in dispute in relation to only one of those two freedoms if it appears, in the circumstances of the case, that one of them is entirely secondary in relation to the other and may be considered together with it (see by analogy Case C-275/92 Schindler [1994] ECR I-1039, paragraph 22; Case C-390/99 Canal Satélite Digital [2002] ECR I-607, paragraph 31; Karner , paragraph 46; Omega , paragraph 26; and Case C-20/03 Burmanjer and Others [2005] ECR I-4133, paragraph 35).

46. Where a national measure relates to both the free movement of goods and freedom to provide services, the Court will in principle examine it in relation to one only of those two fundamental freedoms if it appears that, in the circumstances of the case, one of them is entirely secondary in relation to the other and may be considered together with it (see, to that effect, Case C-275/92 Schindler [1994] ECR I-1039, paragraph 22; and Case C-390/99 Canal Satélite Digital [2002] ECR I-607, paragraph 31).