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Il est vrai, ainsi que le souligne la Commission, qu’une demande de renseignements constitue une mesure d’enquête qui est généralement utilisée dans le cadre de la phase d’instruction qui précède la communication des griefs et a uniquement pour objet de permettre à la Commission de recueillir les renseignements et la documentation nécessaires pour vérifier la réalité et la portée d’une situation de fait et de droit déterminée (voir, en ce sens, arrêt Orkem/Commission, 374/87, EU:C:1989:387, point 21).

34. As far as concerns the exercise of the power of taxation so allocated by bilateral conventions to prevent double taxation, the Member States must comply with European Union rules ( de Groot , paragraph 94, and Renneberg , paragraph 51).

19. In relation to direct taxation, the Court has accepted, in cases relating to taxation of the income of natural persons, that the situation of residents and the situation of non-residents in a given State are not generally comparable, since there are objective differences between them, both from the point of view of the source of the income and from the point of view of their ability to pay tax or the possibility of taking account of their personal and family circumstances ( Schumacker , paragraphs 31 to 34, Case C-80/94 Wielockx [1995] ECR I‑2493, paragraph 18; and Case C‑107/94 Asscher [1996] ECR I‑3089, paragraph 41). The Court has made it clear, however, that, in the case of a tax advantage which is not available to a non-resident, a difference in treatment as between the two categories of taxpayer may constitute discrimination within the meaning of the Treaty where there is no objective difference between the situations of the two such as to justify different treatment in that regard ( Schumacker , paragraphs 36 to 38, and Asscher , paragraph 42).

17. In accordance with the original planning, Mrs Folkerts’ flight was scheduled to depart from Bremen on 16 May 2006 at 6.30 am and arrive in Asunción, her final destination, the same day at 11.30 pm.

42. Nevertheless, the final sentence of the second subparagraph of Article 24(1) TEU and the first paragraph of Article 275 TFEU introduce a derogation from the rule of the general jurisdiction which Article 19 TEU confers on the Court of Justice to ensure that in the interpretation and application of the Treaties the law is observed, and they must, therefore, be interpreted narrowly (judgment in Parliament v Council , C‑658/11, EU:C:2014:2025, paragraph 70).

69. Par ailleurs, dans la mesure où les dispositions litigieuses du code visent, au moins en partie, la protection des employées dans leur qualité de parent, il convient de rappeler, d’une part, qu’il s’agit d’une qualité que peuvent avoir tout à la fois les travailleurs masculins et les travailleurs féminins et, d’autre part, que les situations d’un travailleur masculin et d’un travailleur féminin peuvent être comparables en ce qui concerne l’éducation des enfants (voir arrêts du 25 octobre 1988, Commission/France, 312/86, Rec. p. 6315, point 14, et Griesmar, précité, point 56).

104. That said, it must, in any event, be recalled that, even before the entry into force of Decision 2006/613, the Member States are to protect sites as soon as they propose them, under Article 4(1) of Directive 94/43, as sites eligible for identification as SCIs on the national list transmitted to the Commission (see, to that effect, Dragaggi and Others , paragraph 26). The Member States are required, under that directive, to take protective measures that are appropriate, having regard to the directive’s conservation objective, for the purpose of safeguarding the relevant ecological interest which those sites have at national level (see Dragaggi and Others , paragraph 30) and cannot therefore consent to interventions which may create the risk of seriously compromising the ecological characteristics of those sites, for example interventions which create the risk of significantly reducing the surface area of a site, of leading to the disappearance of priority species present on that site, or, finally, of having as an outcome the destruction of the site or the eradication of its representative characteristics (see Case C-244/05 Bund Naturschutz in Bayern and Others [2006] ECR I-8445, paragraph 46, and Case C-340/10 Commission v Cyprus [2012] ECR, paragraph 44).

43. However, where the reclamation of the heat generated by the combustion constitutes only a secondary effect of an operation whose principal objective is the disposal of waste, it cannot affect the classification of that operation as a disposal operation.

35. The national court, in assessing the facts characterising the transaction in question, must take into account the type of undertaking or business concerned. It follows that the degree of importance to be attached to each criterion indicating a transfer within the meaning of Directive 2001/23 will necessarily vary according to the activity carried on, or indeed the production or operating methods employed in the relevant undertaking, business or part of a business (see Süzen , paragraph 18; Joined Cases C-173/96 and C-247/96 Hidalgo and Others [1998] ECR I-8237, paragraph 31, and Abler and Others , paragraph 35).

36 A condition such as the employment of long-term unemployed persons is an additional specific condition and must therefore be mentioned in the notice, so that contractors may become aware of its existence .

56. The Court has held in particular that the creation of a grouping of municipalities and the taking over by the latter of certain competences of municipalities forming part of that grouping constitutes a rearrangement of the exercise of public powers and cannot therefore fall within Directive 77/187 (see Henke , paragraphs 16 and 17), while holding in other cases that the transfer of staff carrying out activities of an economic nature within a public administration falls within that directive (see, in particular, Hidalgo and Others , paragraph 24; Collino and Chiappero , paragraph 32).

34. According to settled case-law, national measures capable of hindering intra-Community trade may be justified by the objective of protection of the environment and combating fraud provided that the measures in question are proportionate to the aim pursued (see, in particular, Case C‑265/06 Commission v Portugal [2008] ECR I‑2245, paragraph 38; Commission v Luxembourg , paragraph 38; and Case C‑142/05 Mickelsson and Roos [2009] ECR I‑4273, paragraph 32).

32. As regards the national rules of procedure to which the referring court alluded without, however, clarifying their exact scope, it suffices, in any event, to note that such rules cannot affect the powers and obligations conferred on a national court such as the referring court under Article 267 TFEU (see, to that effect, Cartesio , paragraphs 93, 94 and 98).

98. In the light of the foregoing, the answer to the third question must be that, where rules of national law apply which relate to the right of appeal against a decision making a reference for a preliminary ruling, and under those rules the main proceedings remain pending before the referring court in their entirety, the order for reference alone being the subject of a limited appeal, the second paragraph of Article 234 EC is to be interpreted as meaning that the jurisdiction conferred by that provision of the Treaty on any national court or tribunal to make a reference to the Court for a preliminary ruling cannot be called into question by the application of those rules, where they permit the appellate court to vary the order for reference, to set aside the reference and to order the referring court to resume the domestic law proceedings. The fourth question

24. It must be pointed out that, in the case of an aid scheme, the Commission may confine itself to examining the general characteristics of the scheme in question without being required to examine each particular case in which it applies. That power cannot be altered by the fact that the aid scheme in question has ceased to apply (see inter alia Joined Cases C-15/98 and C-105/99 Italy and Sardegna Lines v Commission [2000] ECR I-8855, paragraph 51).

25 The answer should therefore be that charges payable for entering an increase in the share capital of a capital company in a national register of legal persons are, where they amount to a tax for the purposes of the Directive, in principle prohibited under Article 10(c) thereof. The derogation provided for in Article 12(1)(e) of the Directive

20. It must be borne in mind in that regard that, according to the Court’s settled case-law, questions on the interpretation of EU law referred by a national court in the factual and legislative context which that court is responsible for defining and the accuracy of which is not a matter for the Court to determine enjoy a presumption of relevance. The Court may refuse to rule on a question referred for a preliminary ruling by a national court only where it is quite obvious that the interpretation of EU law that is sought bears no relation to the actual facts of the main action or its purpose, where the problem is hypothetical, or where the Court does not have before it the factual or legal material necessary to give a useful answer to the questions submitted to it (see, inter alia, judgments in Budĕjovický Budvar , C‑478/07, EU:C:2009:521, paragraph 63; Zanotti , C‑56/09, EU:C:2010:288, paragraph 15, and Melki and Abdeli , C‑188/10 and C‑189/10, EU:C:2010:363, paragraph 27).

20 IF THE SECOND STAGE ABOVE ALL CONSISTS OF MAKING COMPARISONS AND IS, THEREFORE, GOVERNED BY THE PRINCIPLE OF SECRECY INHERENT IN THE PROCEEDINGS OF A SELECTION BOARD, THE FIRST CONSISTS, IN PARTICULAR IN A COMPETITION ON THE BASIS OF QUALIFICATIONS, OF A COMPARISON OF THE QUALIFICATIONS PRODUCED BY THE CANDIDATES WITH THOSE REQUIRED BY THE NOTICE OF COMPETITION .

Dans la mesure où les requérantes visent une réduction des montants des amendes qui leur ont été infligées, il convient de rappeler qu’une violation, par une juridiction de l’Union, de son obligation résultant de l’article 47, deuxième alinéa, de la Charte de juger les affaires qui lui sont soumises dans un délai raisonnable doit trouver sa sanction dans un recours en indemnité porté devant le Tribunal, un tel recours constituant un remède effectif. Ainsi, une demande visant à obtenir réparation du préjudice causé par le non‑respect, par le Tribunal, d’un délai de jugement raisonnable ne peut être soumise directement à la Cour dans le cadre d’un pourvoi, mais doit être introduite devant le Tribunal lui‑même (arrêts du 26 novembre 2013, Gascogne Sack Deutschland/Commission, C‑40/12 P, EU:C:2013:768, points 89 et 90 ; du 26 novembre 2013, Groupe Gascogne/Commission, C‑58/12 P, EU:C:2013:770, points 83 et 84, ainsi que du 10 juillet 2014, Telefónica et Telefónica de España/Commission, C‑295/12 P, EU:C:2014:2062, point 66).

77 The self-employed medical specialists who are members of the LSV therefore carry on an economic activity and are thus undertakings within the meaning of Articles 85, 96 and 90 of the Treaty. The complexity and technical nature of the services they provide and the fact that the practice of their profession is regulated cannot alter that conclusion (see, to that effect, Case C-35/96 Commission v Italy, cited above, paragraphs 37 and 38).

46. The concept of establishment within the meaning of the Treaty is a very broad one, implying that a Community national may participate, on a stable and continuous basis, in the economic life of a Member State other than his State of origin and profit therefrom, so contributing to economic and social interpenetration within the Community in the sphere of activities as a self-employed person (see, inter alia, Centro di Musicologia Walter Stauffer , paragraph 18, and ELISA , paragraph 63).

81. On account of that position of weakness, such a worker may be dissuaded from explicitly claiming his rights vis-à-vis his employer where doing so may expose him to measures taken by the employer which are likely to affect the employment relationship in a manner detrimental to that worker.

120 It must be noted that the first sentence of Article 108(3) TFEU imposes on the Member States an obligation to inform the Commission of any plans to grant or alter aid. According to the last sentence of Article 108(3) TFEU, a Member State planning to grant aid may not put its proposed measures into effect until that procedure has resulted in a final decision by the Commission. The prohibition laid down by that provision is designed to ensure that aid cannot become operational before the Commission has had a reasonable period in which to study the proposed measures in detail and, if necessary, to initiate the procedure provided for in Article 108(2) TFEU (judgment of 5 March 2015, Banco Privado Português and Massa Insolvente do Banco Privado Português, C‑667/13, EU:C:2015:151, paragraph 57 and the case-law cited).

22 It is appropriate to add that, whereas veterinary surgeons' duties sometimes involve advisory or consultancy aspects, that fact is not enough to bring the principal and habitual activities of the profession of veterinary surgeon within the concepts of `consultants' or `consultancy bureaux' or to cause them to be regarded as `similar'.

33. The above findings are further 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 ( Gözütok and Brügge , paragraph 38, and Case C-469/03 Miraglia [2005] ECR I-2009, paragraph 32).

37. À cet égard, la Cour a déjà précisé que, pour que des impôts, des droits, des prélèvements et des taxes puissent relever de la base d’imposition de la TVA alors même qu’ils ne représentent pas de valeur ajoutée et qu’ils ne constituent pas la contrepartie économique de prestations de services, ils doivent présenter un lien direct avec cette prestation (voir, en ce sens, arrêts du 20 mai 2010, Commission/Pologne, C‑228/09, point 30, ainsi que Lidl & Companhia, précité, point 33).

41 The aim of that principle is to ensure a procedural balance between the parties to judicial proceedings, guaranteeing the equality of rights and obligations of those parties as regards, inter alia, the rules that govern the bringing of evidence and the adversarial hearing before the court (see, to that effect, judgment of 6 November 2012 in Otis and Others, C‑199/11, EU:C:2012:684, paragraphs 71 and 72) and also those parties’ rights to bring an action (judgment of 17 July 2014 in Sánchez Morcillo and Abril García, C‑169/14, EU:C:2014:2099, paragraphs 44, 48 and 49).

21 As the Advocate General notes at point 27 of his Opinion, by compensating farmers who undertake to cease their milk production, the Community does not acquire goods or services for its own use but acts in the common interest of promoting the proper functioning of the Community milk market.

124. With regard, next, to the alleged existence of a principle of inviolability of the criteria for the award of licences, it should be borne in mind that – contrary to the assertions of the appellants – in paragraph 60 of its judgment in Case C‑324/98 Telaustria and Telefonadress [2000] ECR I‑10745, the Court of Justice merely confirmed that contracting authorities are required to comply with the principle of non-discrimination even where they conclude contracts which are outside the scope of Council Directive 93/38/EEC of 14 June 1993 coordinating the procurement procedures of entities operating in the water, energy, transport and telecommunications sectors (OJ 1993 L 199, p. 84), without in any way establishing the existence of a principle of inviolability.

45. D’autre part, la taxe litigieuse se distingue également de la taxe danoise sur l’immatriculation dès lors que, en cas de livraison, le redevable de cette dernière taxe était l’acheteur de la voiture (arrêt De Danske Bilimportører, précité, point 27), alors que, s’agissant de la taxe litigieuse, le redevable est, en cas de livraison, la personne effectuant la vente de la voiture.

48. Consequently, the differential treatment in question could be justified only if it were based on objective considerations independent of the nationality of the persons concerned and were proportionate to the legitimate aim of the national provisions (Case C-274/96 Bickel and Franz [1998] ECR I-7637, paragraph 27, and D’Hoop , cited above, paragraph 36). Justification of discrimination Arguments of the parties – Justification based on safeguarding the homogeneity of the Austrian higher or university education system

33. Although the concept of ‘direct investment’ is not defined by the Treaty, it has nevertheless been defined in the nomenclature of the capital movements set out in Annex I to Council Directive 88/361/EEC of 24 June 1988 for the implementation of Article 67 of the Treaty [article repealed by the Treaty of Amsterdam] (OJ 1988 L 178, p. 5) ( Test Claimants in the FII Group Litigation , paragraphs 177 and 178).

69. By contrast, the Court has held that courses provided by establishments financed essentially by private funds, particularly by pupils and their parents, constitute services within the meaning of Article 50 EC, the aim of such establishments being to offer a service for remuneration ( Wirth , paragraph 17).

35. Thus, the conduct of a subsidiary can be imputed to the parent company where the latter does in fact exercise a decisive influence over the conduct of its subsidiary (see, to that effect, judgment in Akzo Nobel and Others v Commission , C‑97/08 P, EU:C:2009:536, paragraphs 58 and 59 and the case-law cited).

39. It must also be recalled that consideration of economic realities is a fundamental criterion for the application of the common system of VAT (see, first, as regards the meaning of place of business for the purposes of VAT, Case C‑260/95 DFDS [1997] ECR I‑1005, paragraph 23, and Case C‑73/06 Planzer Luxembourg [2007] ECR I‑5655, paragraph 43, and, secondly, as regards the identification of the person to whom goods are supplied, by analogy, Case C‑185/01 Auto Lease Holland [2003] ECR I‑1317, paragraphs 35 and 36).

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.

78. In that regard, it is important to note that the Court of First Instance has exclusive jurisdiction to make findings of fact, save where a substantive inaccuracy in its findings is attributable to the documents submitted to it, and to appraise those facts. The appraisal of the facts thus does not, save where the clear sense of the evidence before it has been distorted, constitute a point of law which is subject, as such, to review by the Court of Justice on appeal (see Joined Cases C‑456/01 P and C‑457/01 P Henkel v OHIM [2004] ECR I‑5089, paragraphs 41 and 56, and Case C-238/06 P Develey v OHIM [2007] ECR I‑9375, paragraph 97).

64. The Greek Government drew attention to the possibility stemming from the constitutional provision at issue in the main proceedings of not applying the exclusionary measure to an intermediary – in the form of a spouse, a relative or a financially dependent person or company – of a media undertaking or of a person responsible for such an undertaking if it is demonstrated that the participation of that intermediary in a procedure for the award of a public contract is the result of an autonomous decision which is dictated by the intermediary’s own interest alone.

33. That interpretation must apply a fortiori with respect to a rule of jurisdiction, such as that contained in Article 14 of the Convention, which allows a consumer, within the meaning of the first paragraph of Article 13 of the Convention, to sue the defendant in the courts of the Contracting State in which the claimant is domiciled. Apart from the cases expressly provided for, the Convention does not appear to favour the attribution of jurisdiction to the courts of the claimant’s domicile (see Case C-220/88 Dumez France and Tracoba [1990] ECR I-49, paragraphs 16 and 19; Shearson Lehman Hutton , paragraph 17; Benincasa , paragraph 14; and Case C-168/02 Kronhofer [2004] ECR I-0000, paragraph 20).

21. À cet égard, il convient de rappeler qu’un pourvoi doit indiquer de façon précise les éléments critiqués de l’arrêt dont l’annulation est demandée ainsi que les arguments juridiques qui soutiennent de manière spécifique cette demande, sous peine d’irrecevabilité du pourvoi ou du moyen concerné (arrêts du 28 juin 2005, Dansk Rørindustri e.a./Commission, C‑189/02 P, C‑202/02 P, C‑205/02 P à C‑208/02 P et C‑213/02 P, Rec. p. I‑5425, point 426, ainsi que du 23 avril 2009, AEPI/Commission, C‑425/07 P, Rec. p. I‑3205, point 25 et jurisprudence citée). Or, la Cour a déjà jugé qu’un moyen qui est trop obscur pour recevoir une réponse doit être déclaré irrecevable (arrêt du 2 octobre 2003, Thyssen Stahl/Commission, C‑194/99 P, Rec. p. I‑10821, point 106).

12. The reference to ‘social advantages’ in that provision cannot be interpreted restrictively (Case C‑57/96 Meints [1997] ECR I‑6689, paragraph 39). According to settled case-law, ‘social advantages’ are to be understood as all advantages which, whether or not linked to a contract of employment, are generally granted to national workers because of their objective status as workers or by virtue of the mere fact of their residence on the national territory, and whose extension to workers who are nationals of other Member States therefore seems likely to facilitate their mobility within the European Community (see Case 65/81 Reina [1982] ECR 33, paragraph 12; Meints , paragraph 39; and Case C‑85/96 Martínez Sala [1998] ECR I‑2691, paragraph 25).

43 The Austrian Government points out that the introduction of the energy taxes and their rebate was not adopted as an isolated measure but in the context of the Strukturanpassungsgesetz of 1996, which provides for an overall package of measures intended to consolidate the budget. That package, composed of general socially balanced measures affecting all socio-professional groups, should be considered as a whole.

34. Measures such as those in issue in the main proceedings which entail, by their very purpose, a restriction on the free movement of capital (see, to that effect, Konle , cited above, paragraph 39) may nevertheless be permitted provided that, first, they pursue in a non-discriminatory way an objective in the public interest and, secondly, they are appropriate for ensuring that the aim pursued is achieved and do not go beyond what is necessary for that purpose (see, to that effect, Konle , paragraph 40, and Salzmann , paragraph 42). Furthermore, where the granting of prior authorisation is concerned, such measures must be based on objective criteria which are known in advance and which allow all persons affected by a restrictive measure of that type to have a legal remedy available to them (see, to that effect, Case C-205/99 Analir and Others [2001] ECR I-1271, paragraph 38).

8. 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 et que les changements intervenus par la suite ne sauraient être pris en compte par la Cour (voir, notamment, arrêts du 30 janvier 2002, Commission/Grèce, C-103/00, Rec. p. I-1147, point 23, et du 10 février 2009, Commission/France, C-224/08, point 9).

46 It should be recalled that the Court has already acknowledged, in certain cases, that third-country nationals, family members of a Union citizen, who were not eligible, on the basis of Directive 2004/38, for a derived right of residence in the Member State of which that citizen is a national could, however, be accorded such a right on the basis of Article 21(1) TFEU (see, to that effect, judgments of 12 March 2014, O. and B., C‑456/12, EU:C:2014:135, paragraphs 44 to 50, and of 10 May 2017, Chavez-Vilchez and Others, C‑133/15, EU:C:2017:354, paragraph 54).

10 IN ANSWER TO A QUESTION PUT BY THE COURT THE COUNCIL HAS STATED THAT WHEN IT ADOPTED THE CONTESTED REGULATIONS IT INTENDED TO BASE THEM ON BOTH ARTICLES 113 AND 235 OF THE EEC TREATY . IT HAS EXPLAINED THAT IT DEPARTED FROM THE COMMISSION' S PROPOSAL TO BASE THE REGULATIONS ON ARTICLE 113 ALONE BECAUSE IT WAS CONVINCED THAT THE CONTESTED REGULATIONS HAD NOT ONLY COMMERCIAL-POLICY AIMS, BUT ALSO MAJOR DEVELOPMENT-POLICY AIMS . THE IMPLEMENTATION OF DEVELOPMENT POLICY GOES BEYOND THE SCOPE OF ARTICLE 113 OF THE TREATY AND NECESSITATES RECOURSE TO ARTICLE 235 .

31. Other factors, such as the place of residence of the main directors and the place where general meetings are held, may also need to be taken into account during a second phase, for example when determining the effective place of business of a company exhibiting a fictitious presence, such as that of a ‘letter-box’ company (see, to that effect, Planzer Luxembourg , paragraphs 61 and 62).

57. Under the procedure for reviewing State aid, it is necessary to distinguish between the preliminary stage of the procedure for reviewing aids under Article 88(3) EC, which is governed by Articles 4 and 5 of Regulation No 659/1999 and is intended merely to allow the Commission to form a prima facie opinion on the partial or complete conformity of the aid in question, and the investigation stage envisaged by Article 88(2) EC, which is governed by Articles 6 and 7 of that regulation and 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; Case C-225/91 Matra v Commission [1993] ECR I-3203, paragraph 16; Case C-367/95 P Commission v Sytraval and Brink’s France [1998] ECR I-1719, paragraph 38; and Case C-176/06 P Stadtwerke Schwäbisch Hall and Others v Commission [2007] ECR I-0000, paragraph 20).

41 It follows that that convention may be relied on for the purposes of interpreting that directive, which must, as far as possible, be interpreted in a manner that is consistent with that convention (see judgments of 11 April 2013, HK Danmark, C‑335/11 and C‑337/11, EU:C:2013:222, paragraph 32, and of 18 March 2014, Z., C‑363/12, EU:C:2014:159, paragraph 75).

25 THE PROCEDURAL IRREGULARITY WHICH HAS BEEN ESTABLISHED CANNOT, HOWEVER, ENTAIL THE ANNULMENT OF THE TWO CONTESTED REGULATIONS . ACCORDING TO THE FIRST PARAGRAPH OF ARTICLE 173 OF THE TREATY, ONLY THE INFRINGEMENT OF "ESSENTIAL" PROCEDURAL REQUIREMENTS PERMITS THE MEASURE IN QUESTION TO BE DECLARED UNLAWFUL . IN THIS CASE, THE INCORRECT REFERENCE TO THE OPINION OF THE MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE CANNOT BE REGARDED AS AN INFRINGEMENT OF AN ESSENTIAL PROCEDURAL REQUIREMENT . IT IS CLEAR FROM THE DOCUMENTS BEFORE THE COURT THAT THE MATTER HAD BEEN PROPERLY REFERRED TO THE MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE BUT THAT THE COMMITTEE WAS UNABLE TO GIVE AN OPINION, WHILST ACCORDING TO ARTICLE 67 OF THE BASIC REGULATION ONLY AN OPINION OF THE MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE WHICH IS NOT IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE DRAFT MEASURES PROPOSED BY THE COMMISSION MAY ENTAIL LEGAL CONSEQUENCES, IN PARTICULAR IN THE SENSE THAT THE MEASURES IN QUESTION ARE TO BE REFERRED TO THE COUNCIL . WHERE, AS IN THIS CASE, THE MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE DOES NOT GIVE AN OPINION, THE COMMISSION IS ENTIRELY AT LIBERTY TO ADOPT THOSE MEASURES ON ITS OWN RESPONSIBILITY . THE ABSENCE OF AN OPINION OF THE MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE IS NOT THEREFORE CAPABLE OF AFFECTING THE LEGALITY OF THE MEASURES ADOPTED IN THAT WAY .

16. As a preliminary point, it should be noted, first, that Article 5(3) of Regulation No 44/2001 must be interpreted autonomously and strictly (see to that effect, judgment in Coty Germany , C‑360/12, EU:C:2014:1318, paragraphs 43 to 45).

83. Those include Resolutions 1373 (2001) and 1377 (2001) of the UN Security Council, from which it is clear that the Security Council takes as its starting point the principle that international terrorist acts are, generally speaking and irrespective of any State participation, contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.

104. As regards the principle of the protection of legitimate expectations, it should be stated that, in view of the mandatory nature of the supervision of State aid by the Commission under Article 88 EC, undertakings to which aid has been granted may not, in principle, entertain a legitimate expectation that the aid is lawful unless it has been granted in compliance with the procedure laid down in that article (Case C-169/95 Spain v Commission [1997] ECR I-135, paragraph 51, and Case C-24/95 Alcan Deutschland [1997] ECR I-1591, paragraph 25).

30 In such special circumstances, the transport is organized by the employer for purposes which are not other than those of the business. The personal benefit derived by employees from such transport appears to be of only secondary importance compared to the needs of the business.

48. The Court has also held that the obligations of consultation and notification imposed on the employer come into being prior to the employer’s decision to terminate employment contracts (see, to that effect, Case C‑188/03 Junk [2005] ECR I‑885, paragraphs 36 and 37, and Akavan Erityisalojen Keskusliitto AEK and Others , above, paragraph 38).

51. The institutions of the place of stay and the place of residence jointly assume the task of applying Articles 31 and 36 of Regulation No 1408/71 and Articles 31 and 93 of Regulation No 574/72, and must, in accordance with Article 10 EC and Article 84 of Regulation No 1408/71, cooperate in order to ensure that those provisions are applied correctly and, consequently, that the rights conferred on pensioners and members of their families by Article 31 of Regulation No 1408/71 with a view to facilitating the freedom of movement of those insured persons are fully respected (see, to similar effect, Case C-335/95 Picard [1996] ECR I-5625, paragraph 18, and Case C-202/97 FTS [2000] ECR I-883, paragraphs 51 and 56).

66. Accordingly, the Court has already acknowledged the existence of such presumptions in four particular cases, namely with regard to the documents in the administrative file relating to a procedure for reviewing State aid (see Commission v Technische Glaswerke Ilmenau , paragraph 61), the documents exchanged between the Commission and notifying parties or third parties in the course of merger control proceedings (see Commission v Éditions Odile Jacob , paragraph 123, and Commission v Agrofert Holding , paragraph 64), the pleading lodged by one of the institutions in court proceedings (see Sweden and Others v API and Commission , paragraph 94) and the documents concerning an infringement procedure during its pre-litigation stage (see LPN and Finland v Commission , paragraph 65).

21 ALTHOUGH THE LANDBOUWSCHAP CANNOT BE CONSIDERED TO BE DIRECTLY AND INDIVIDUALLY CONCERNED BY DECISION 85/215 AS A RECIPIENT OF THE CONTESTED AID, IT IS NONE THE LESS TRUE THAT, AS THE LANDBOUWSCHAP RIGHTLY ARGUES, ITS POSITION AS NEGOTIATOR OF GAS TARIFFS IN THE INTERESTS OF THE GROWERS IS AFFECTED BY DECISION 85/215 .

40. However, it should be borne in mind that a prudent trader aware of the rules must, in calculating the benefits from trade in goods likely to enjoy tariff preferences, assess the risks inherent in the market which he is considering and accept them as normal trade risks (see Case 827/79 Acampora [1980] ECR 3731, paragraph 8; Pascoal & Filhos , paragraph 59; and the order in CPL Imperial 2 and Unifrigo v Commission , paragraph 37).

26. D’autre part, il convient de rappeler que, selon une jurisprudence constante de la Cour, la procédure précontentieuse a pour but de donner à l’État membre concerné l’occasion, d’une part, de se conformer à ses obligations découlant du droit communautaire et, d’autre part, de faire utilement valoir ses moyens de défense à l’encontre des griefs formulés par la Commission (voir, notamment, arrêts du 27 novembre 2003, Commission/Finlande, C‑185/00, Rec. p. I‑14189, point 79, et du 8 avril 2008, Commission/Italie, C‑337/05, Rec. p. I‑2173, point 19).

28. As a preliminary point, it should be noted that, within the framework of the Authorisation Directive, Member States may not levy any fees or charges in relation to the provision of networks and electronic communication services other than those provided for by that directive (see, by analogy, Case C-339/04 Nuova società di telecomunicazioni [2006] ECR I-6917, paragraph 35, and Case C-85/10 Telefónica Móviles España [2011] ECR I-1575, paragraph 21).

43. Accordingly, the Austrian legislation must be regarded as having existed on 31 December 1993 for the purposes of Article 57(1) EC.

56. For the purposes of interpreting the concept of ‘location’ as a concept of EU law, it should be borne in mind that, according to settled case-law, the meaning and scope of terms for which EU law provides no definition must be determined by considering their usual meaning in everyday language, while also taking into account the context in which they occur and the purposes of the rules of which they are part (see, inter alia, Case C-336/03 easyCar [2005] ECR I-1947, paragraph 21 and the case-law cited).

51. Such an economic benefit may also be held to exist where it is provided that the contracting authority is to hold a legal right over the use of the works which are the subject of the contract, in order that they can be made available to the public (see, to that effect, Ordine degli Architetti and Others , paragraphs 67, 71 and 77).

45 Question 1(a) and (c) relate in substance to the difference in the treatment of traditional and non-traditional imports of ACP bananas which was challenged by the Federal Republic of Germany in Case C-280/93 cited above. The Court held, on that point, that with respect to the establishment of a tariff quota, the import of bananas from ACP States fell under Article 168(2)(a)(ii) of the Lomé Convention. In accordance with Protocol 5, the Community was obliged to permit the access, free of customs duty, only of the quantities of bananas actually imported `at zero duty' in the best year before 1991 from each ACP State which was a traditional supplier. Moreover, Annexes LXXIV and LXXV relating to that Protocol confirmed that the Community's only obligation was to maintain the advantages, with respect to access of ACP bananas to the Community market, which the ACP States had before the Lomé Convention (Case C-280/93 Germany v Council, cited above, paragraph 101).

53. The fact that a significant number of praticanti-patrocinanti who have not passed the final examination continue to exercise legal activities and are not removed from the register of praticanti cannot have the effect of qualifying the activities of praticante or patrocinante, considered in isolation, as a regulated profession within the meaning of Directive 89/48.

33. It must be borne in mind that, according to settled case-law of the Court, the concept of ‘supply of goods’ referred to in Article 14(1) of Directive 2006/112 does not refer to the transfer of ownership in accordance with the procedures prescribed by the applicable national law but covers any transfer of tangible property by one party which empowers the other party actually to dispose of it as if he were its owner (see Case C‑320/88 Shipping and Forwarding Enterprise Safe [1990] ECR I‑285, paragraph 7; Case C‑435/03 British American Tobacco and Newman Shipping [2005] ECR I‑7077, paragraph 35; and Case C‑237/09 De Fruytier [2010] ECR I‑4985, paragraph 24).

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.

42. It should be pointed out in that regard that freedom of establishment, which Article 43 EC grants to Community nationals and which includes the right for them to take up and pursue activities as self-employed persons and to set up and manage undertakings, under the conditions laid down for its own nationals by the law of the Member State where such establishment is effected, entails, in accordance with Article 48 EC, for companies or firms formed in accordance with the law of a Member State and having their registered office, central administration or principal place of business within the European Community, the right to exercise their activity in the Member State concerned through a subsidiary, branch or agency (see, in particular, Case C-307/97 Saint‑Gobain ZN [1999] ECR I-6161, paragraph 35; Case C-446/03 Marks & Spencer [2005] ECR I-10837, paragraph 30; and Cadbury Schweppes and Cadbury Schweppes Overseas , paragraph 41).

17. Thus, the purpose of a vessel’s voyage within European Union waters is irrelevant for the application of the exemption of mineral oils from excise duties when that navigation involves the provision of services for consideration.

46. That presumption of relevance cannot be rebutted by the simple fact that one of the parties to the main proceedings contests certain facts, the accuracy of which is not a matter for the Court to determine and on which the delimitation of the subject-matter of those proceedings depends (see Case C‑379/05 Amurta [2007] ECR I‑9569, paragraph 65 and case-law cited).

36. The Austrian Government’s argument that, since it has no market value, waste for disposal is not covered by the concept of ‘products’ within the meaning of Article 90 EC cannot succeed.

23. Furthermore, when the Court is requested to give a preliminary ruling on a matter of tariff classification, its task is to provide the national court with guidance on the criteria the implementation of which will enable the latter to classify the products at issue correctly in the CN, rather than to effect that classification itself, a fortiori since the Court does not necessarily have available to it all the information which is essential in that regard. In any event, the national court is in a better position to do so. However, in order to give the national court a useful answer, the Court may, in a spirit of cooperation with national courts, provide it with all the guidance that it deems necessary (see, inter alia, Case C‑56/08 Pärlitigu [2009] ECR I‑6719, paragraph 23 and case-law cited).

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.

28. It is clear from the case-law of the Court that the rights of the defence, which include the right to be heard, are among the fundamental rights that form an integral part of the European Union legal order (see, to that effect, inter alia, Case C‑349/07 Sopropé [2008] ECR I‑10369, paragraphs 33 and 36). Where national legislation comes within the scope of European Union law, the Court, when requested to give a preliminary ruling, must provide all the criteria of interpretation required by the national court to determine whether that legislation is compatible with fundamental rights (see, inter alia, Case C‑260/89 ERT [1991] ECR I‑2925, paragraph 42, and Sopropé , paragraphs 33 and 34).

71. Consequently, whether it is the surplus stock charge established by Regulation No 1972/2003 or the measures introduced by Regulation No 60/2004 to eliminate stocks of sugar and other products which are concerned, those instruments which are intended to protect the common organisation of markets apply to all surplus stocks within the meaning of those regulations, regardless of whether the holders of the stocks have actually derived an advantage from marketing them.

39 As a preliminary point, it must be borne in mind that, according to settled case-law, the concept of pay, as defined in Article 119 of the Treaty, does not encompass social security schemes or benefits, in particular retirement pensions, which are directly governed by legislation (Case C-262/88 Barber [1990] ECR I-1889, paragraph 22, Beune, cited above, paragraph 44, and Case C-50/99 Podesta [2000] ECR I-4039, paragraph 24).

58 In such circumstances, where the issuer of the invoice has in sufficient time wholly eliminated the risk of any loss in tax revenues, the principle of the neutrality of VAT requires that VAT which has been improperly invoiced can be adjusted without such adjustment being made conditional by the Member States upon the issuer of the relevant invoice having acted in good faith.

19 Finally, it should also be borne in mind that the directive does not preclude an amendment to the employment relationship with the new employer, in so far as national law allows such an amendment otherwise than through a transfer of the undertaking (see, most recently, the judgment in Watson Rask and Christensen, cited above, at paragraph 31).

60. In this context, it must be accepted that checks performed outside the region of production would provide fewer guarantees of the quality and authenticity of the product than checks carried out in the region of production under the responsibility of those entitled to use the designation (see, to that effect, Belgium v Spain , paragraph 67). First, checks performed in the region of production under the responsibility of those entitled to use the designation of origin are thorough and systematic in nature and are done by experts who have specialised knowledge of the characteristics of the product. Second, it is hardly conceivable that representatives of the persons entitled to use the designation could effectively introduce such checks in other Member States.

41. Freedom of establishment, which Article 43 EC grants to Community nationals and which includes the right to take up and pursue activities as self-employed persons and to set up and manage undertakings, under the conditions laid down for its own nationals by the law of the Member State where such establishment is effected, entails, in accordance with Article 48 EC, for companies or firms formed in accordance with the law of a Member State and having their registered office, central administration or principal place of business within the Community, the right to exercise their activity in the Member State concerned through a subsidiary, a branch or an agency (see, in particular, Case C-307/97 Saint Gobain ZN [1999] ECR I-6161, paragraph 35; Marks & Spencer , paragraph 30; and Case C-471/04 Keller Holding [2006] ECR I-0000, paragraph 29).

26 The Directive contains no express definition of the phrase "broadcasters under its jurisdiction".

48. However, where national legislation falling within an area which has not been harmonised at European Union level is applicable without distinction to all persons and undertakings operating in the territory of the Member State concerned, it may, notwithstanding its restrictive effect on the freedom to provide services, be justified where it meets an overriding requirement in the public interest and that interest is not already safeguarded by the rules to which the service provider is subject in the Member State in which it is established, and in so far as it is appropriate for securing the attainment of the objective which it pursues and does not go beyond what is necessary in order to attain it (see judgments in Commission v Luxembourg , EU:C:2004:655, paragraph 21; Commission v Germany, EU:C:2006:49, paragraph 31; and Commission v Austria , EU:C:2006:595, paragraph 37).

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.

40. In that context, the Court stated that the right to paid annual leave is, as a principle of European Union social law, not only particularly important, but is also expressly laid down in Article 31(2) of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, which Article 6(1) TEU recognises as having the same legal value as the Treaties ( KHS , paragraph 37).

59. The Court has already pointed out that there are several means a prudent tenderer may use, such as requiring a security or inserting an indemnity clause in the works contract or the sales contract, to prevent subsequent persons with whom it enters into contracts from disregarding their obligations. Moreover, the Court has already held that a clause entered into the sale contract by the successful tenderer, as a precaution, does not exhaust all the possible measures for guarding against the possibility that subsequent buyers might not comply with their obligations (see, by analogy, Case 125/83 Corman [1985] ECR 3039, paragraphs 29 and 30).

33. In order to determine whether the conditions for the transfer of an organised economic entity are met, it is necessary to consider all the facts characterising the transaction in question, including in particular the type of undertaking or business, whether or not its tangible assets, such as buildings and movable property, are transferred, the value of its intangible assets at the time of the transfer, whether or not the majority of its employees are taken over by the new employer, whether or not its customers are transferred, the degree of similarity between the activities carried on before and after the transfer, and the period, if any, for which those activities were suspended (see Spijkers , cited above, paragraph 13, and Süzen , paragraph 14).

26 If the Community legislature had intended to require contracting authorities to exclude such tenderers, it would have stated this explicitly.

74. It is appropriate to interpret the grounds for refusal of registration listed in Article 7(1) of Regulation No 40/94 in the light of the general interest underlying each of them (C‑37/03 P BioID v OHIM [2005] ECR I‑7975, paragraph 59 and the case-law there cited).

11 The Italian Republic puts forward three pleas alleging that the injections of capital were not undertaken by the State, that they were consistent with the normal behaviour of a private investor and that they did not adversely affect competition within the Community.

35. More specifically, as is clear from the actual wording of the three indents of Article 6(1) of Decision No 1/80, the rights on which Turkish workers can rely under those provisions vary themselves and are subject to conditions which differ according to the duration of the legal employment in the host Member State (see Case C-355/93 Eroglu [1994] ECR I-5113, paragraph 12: Tetik , paragraph 23: Eker , paragraph 21: Günaydin , paragraph 25; and Ertanir , paragraph 25).

78. Directive 93/53 therefore seeks to contribute to the completion of the internal market in aquaculture animals and products and forms part of a regime intended to introduce minimum Community measures for the control of certain fish diseases. Accordingly, the measures which that directive imposes are in conformity with objectives of general interest pursued by the Community.

42. Where questions submitted by national courts concern the interpretation of a provision of EU law, the Court of Justice is bound, in principle, to give a ruling unless it is obvious that the request for a preliminary ruling is in reality designed to induce the Court to give a ruling by means of a fictitious dispute, or to deliver advisory opinions on general or hypothetical questions, or that the interpretation of EU law requested bears no relation to the actual facts of the main action or its purpose, or that the Court does not have before it the factual or legal material necessary to give a useful answer to the questions submitted to it (Case C‑306/99 BIAO [2003] ECR  I‑1, paragraph 89, and Confederación Española de Empresarios de Estaciones de Servicio , paragraph 17).

66. It follows that the criterion relating to the denial of the genuine enjoyment of the substance of the rights conferred by virtue of European Union citizen status refers to situations in which the Union citizen has, in fact, to leave not only the territory of the Member State of which he is a national but also the territory of the Union as a whole.

45. Moreover, the Court’s case-law makes clear that, in order to be regarded as exempt transactions for the purposes of Article 13B(d) of the Sixth Directive, the services provided must, viewed broadly, form a distinct whole, fulfilling in effect the specific, essential functions of a service described in that provision (see SDC , paragraph 66; Case C-235/00 CSC Financial Services [2001] ECR I-10237, paragraph 25; Abbey National , paragraph 70; and Ludwig , paragraph 27).

69 It must nonetheless be recalled that the principle of equal treatment is a general principle of EU law enshrined in Articles 20 and 21 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. According to settled case-law, that principle requires that comparable situations must not be treated differently and different situations must not be treated in the same way unless such treatment is objectively justified (see, inter alia, judgment of 12 November 2014, Guardian Industries and Guardian Europe v Commission, C‑580/12 P, EU:C:2014:2363, paragraph 51).

32. According to the case-law of the Court, the right to maternity leave granted to pregnant workers must be regarded as a particularly important mechanism of protection under employment law. The European Union legislature thus considered that the fundamental changes to the living conditions of the persons concerned during the period of at least 14 weeks preceding and after childbirth constituted a legitimate ground on which they could suspend their employment, without the public authorities or employers being allowed in any way to call the legitimacy of that ground into question (Case C‑116/06 Kiiski [2007] ECR I‑7643, paragraph 49, and Case C‑5/12 Betriu Montull [2013] ECR, paragraph 48).

22 It should be noted that, as the Commission has observed, in general the annual depreciation in the value of cars is considerably more than 5%, that that depreciation is not linear, especially in the first years when it is much more marked than subsequently, and, finally, that vehicles continue to depreciate more than four years after being put into circulation.

48 As regards the justification based on the protection of the environment, and in particular the principle referred to in Article 130r(2) of the Treaty that environmental damage should as a priority be rectified at source, it must be pointed out that the protection of the environment cannot serve to justify any restriction on exports, particularly in the case of waste destined for recovery (see, to that effect, Case C-203/96 Dusseldorp and Others [1998] ECR I-4075, paragraph 49). That is so a fortiori where, as in the case before the national court, environmentally non-hazardous building waste is involved.

26. À ce sujet, sous le titre «L’offre de produits à base de carbone et de graphite pour applications électriques et mécaniques», le point 37 de cette décision contient la description du marché desdits produits. Il y est notamment relevé que le secteur en cause a été marqué par une tendance à la concentration et que, en 1998, dernière année complète au cours de laquelle toutes les entreprises visées par ladite décision ont participé au cartel, celui-ci englobait plus de 90 % du marché pour le groupe des produits concernés, la valeur totale de ce marché s’élevant à 291 millions d’euros, «y compris la valeur de l’usage captif». Dans le tableau figurant audit point 37, il est encore souligné que l’estimation du chiffre d’affaires des entreprises impliquées pour l’année 1998 englobait «la valeur correspondant à l’usage captif».

12 Since full responsibility for commercial policy was transferred to the Community by Article 113(1), national measures of commercial policy are therefore permissible only if they are specifically authorized by the Community (judgments in Case 41/76 Donckerwolke v Procureur de la République [1976] ECR 1921, paragraph 32, and Case 174/84 Bulk Oil v Sun International [1986] ECR 559, paragraph 31).

52. According to settled case-law, in the absence of harmonisation of EU legislation in the field of penalties applicable where conditions laid down by arrangements under that legislation are not complied with, Member States are empowered to choose the penalties which seem to them to be appropriate. They must, however, exercise that power in accordance with EU law and its general principles, and, consequently, in accordance with the principle of proportionality (see, inter alia, judgment in Urbán , C‑210/10, EU:C:2012:64, paragraph 23 and the case-law cited).

92 The imposition of a lump sum payment and the fixing of that sum must depend in each individual case on all the relevant factors relating both to the characteristics of the failure to fulfil obligations established and to the conduct of the Member State involved in the procedure initiated under Article 260 TFEU. That provision confers a wide discretion on the Court in deciding whether to impose such a penalty and, if it decides to do so, in determining the amount thereof (judgment of 15 October 2015 in Commission v Greece, C‑167/14, EU:C:2015:684, paragraph 73).

41 As stated in recital 17 of that regulation, the scientific substantiation is to be the main aspect to be taken into account for the use of nutrition and health claims. Moreover, recital 23 of the regulation provides that the health claims are only be authorised for use in the European Union after a scientific assessment of the highest possible standard and that, in order to ensure harmonised scientific assessment of these claims, the European Food Safety Authority is to carry out such assessments.

33 That said, when the Court is asked to give a preliminary ruling on the interpretation of such a harmonised standard, it is for the national court, on the basis of the Court’s interpretation and in the light of the facts available to it, to determine the technical standard applicable to a particular product (see, by analogy, with reference to tariff classification, judgments of 7 November 2002, Lohmann and Medi Bayreuth, C‑260/00 to C‑263/00, EU:C:2002:637, paragraph 26, and of 28 April 2016, Oniors Bio, C‑233/15, EU:C:2016:305, paragraph 28).

61. In order to determine whether the failure to fulfil obligations for which the defendant stands criticised continued up to the time of the Court’s examination of the facts, it is necessary to consider the measures which were adopted, according to the defendant Member State, after the period prescribed in the reasoned opinion.

23. According to settled case‑law established in various contexts, for example agricultural regulations or the rules on time‑limits for bringing an action laid down by Article 45 of the Statute of the Court of Justice, force majeure is not limited to absolute impossibility but must be understood in the sense of abnormal and unforeseeable circumstances, extraneous to the operator concerned, the consequences of which, in spite of the exercise of all due care, could not have been avoided (see, to that effect, Case C‑195/91 P Bayer v Commission [1994] ECR I‑5619, paragraph 31, and Case C‑208/01 Parras Medina [2002] ECR I‑8955, paragraph 19 and the case‑law cited).

45. However, the reasons which may be invoked by a Member State by way of justification must be accompanied by an analysis of the appropriateness and proportionality of the restrictive measure adopted by that State.

50. Having regard to the answer to the first three questions and given that, under the procedure laid down in Article 267 TFEU, the Court has no jurisdiction to interpret national law, that task being exclusively for the national court (see Case C‑53/04 Marrosu and Sardino [2006] ECR I‑7213, paragraph 54, and Joined Cases C‑250/09 and C‑268/09 Georgiev [2010] ECR I‑0000, paragraph 75), the fifth question must be understood as meaning that the national court asks, in essence, whether any right to rely on one of the directives referred to in the first three questions, in order to obtain access to the information held by the provider of vocational training concerning the qualifications of the applicants for that course, can be affected by rules of European Union law relating to confidentiality. Arguments of the parties

40. As to the spring hunting of goosander, which is justified essentially by the need to ensure the putting in place by humans, in particular hunters, of nesting-boxes which are essential for that species’ reproduction, suffice it to refer to paragraphs 38 and 39 of this judgment, which apply mutatis mutandis to this point.

34. A distinction must therefore be drawn between the unequal treatment permitted under Article 58(1)(a) EC and the arbitrary discrimination prohibited under Article 58(3) EC. According to the case-law, in order for national tax legislation such as that at issue in the main proceedings – which, for the purposes of calculating gift tax, distinguishes as to the amount of the allowance applicable to the taxable value of immovable property located in the Member State concerned according to whether the donor or the donee resides in that State or they both reside in another Member State – to be regarded as compatible with the Treaty provisions on the free movement of capital, the difference in treatment must concern situations which are not objectively comparable or be justified by overriding reasons in the general interest. In order to be justified, moreover, the difference in treatment between those two categories of gifts must not go beyond what is necessary in order to attain the objective of the legislation in question (see Case C‑319/02 Manninen [2004] ECR I‑7477, paragraph 29; Eckelkamp and Others , paragraphs 58 and 59; and Arens-Sikken , paragraphs 52 and 53).

46 In the third place, the system of exemptions, as a support measure for local production, which encounters difficulties as a result of its isolation and distance from metropolitan France, is subject to strict conditions.

19 In the case of ex gratia payments by the employer, it is clear from the judgment of 9 February 1982 in Case 12/81 Garland, cited above, paragraph 10, that Article 119 also applies to advantages which an employer grants to workers although he is not required to do so by contract .

26. According to settled case-law, persons other than those to whom a decision is addressed may claim to be individually concerned only if that decision affects them by reason of certain attributes which are peculiar to them or by reason of circumstances in which they are differentiated from all other persons and by virtue of those factors distinguishes them individually just as in the case of the person addressed by such a decision (see, inter alia, Case 25/62 Plaumann v Commission [1963] ECR 95, at p. 107; Cook v Commission , paragraph 20; Matra v Commission , paragraph 14; Case C‑78/03 P Commission v Aktionsgemeinschaft Recht und Eigentum [2005] ECR I‑10737, paragraph 33; and Joined Cases C‑75/05 P and C‑80/05 P Germany and Others v Kronofrance [2008] ECR I‑0000, paragraph 36).

46. This also applies to the claim put forward by OHIM, according to which the General Court distorted the analysis carried out by the Board of Appeal, as distortion of the content of an act also constitutes an error of law (Case C‑164/98 P DIR International Film and Others v Commission [2000] ECR I‑447, paragraph 48).

54 THIS DIRECTIVE PROVIDES FURTHER DETAILS REGARDING CERTAIN ASPECTS OF THE MATERIAL SCOPE OF ARTICLE 119 AND ALSO ADOPTS VARIOUS PROVISIONS WHOSE ESSENTIAL PURPOSE IS TO IMPROVE THE LEGAL PROTECTION OF WORKERS WHO MAY BE WRONGED BY FAILURE TO APPLY THE PRINCIPLE OF EQUAL PAY LAID DOWN BY ARTICLE 119 .

33. However, contrary to what SEPA maintains, neither the instruction emanating from the competent German authorities, according to which the meat originating from isolation slaughterhouses did not meet the condition as to sound and fair marketable quality, nor the substance of the judgment in SEPA , in the same vein, could be considered as abnormal and unforeseeable. As the Court stated at paragraphs 29 and 30 of that judgment, it already appeared from Community legislation which had entered into force prior to the exports made by SEPA that the meat originating from isolated slaughterhouses, even if it fulfilled the hygiene criteria, could be authorised for human consumption only on the local market and only if various additional conditions had been fulfilled.

98 Thus, with respect to the assessment, in the context of an appeal, of the General Court’s determinations on national law, the Court of Justice has jurisdiction only to determine whether that law was distorted (judgment of 10 November 2016, DTS Distribuidora de Televisión Digital v Commission, C‑449/14 P, EU:C:2016:848, paragraph 44 and the case-law cited).

40. According to clause 1(a) of the framework agreement, one of the objectives of that agreement is to improve the quality of fixed-term work by ensuring the application of the principle of non-discrimination. Similarly, the third paragraph in the preamble to the framework agreement states that it ‘illustrates the willingness of the Social Partners to establish a general framework for ensuring equal treatment for fixed-term workers by protecting them against discrimination’. Recital 14 in the preamble to Directive 1999/70 states with that in view that the aim of the framework agreement is, in particular, to improve the quality of fixed-term work by setting out minimum requirements in order to ensure the application of the principle of non-discrimination (see judgments in Gavieiro Gavieiro and Iglesias Torres , C‑444/09 and C‑456/09, EU:C:2010:819, paragraph 47, and Nierodzik , C‑38/13, EU:C:2014:152, paragraph 22, and orders in Montoya Medina , C‑273/10, EU:C:2011:167, paragraph 29, and Lorenzo Martínez , C‑556/11, EU:C:2012:67, paragraph 34).

48. A public authority which is a contracting authority has the possibility of performing the tasks conferred on it in the public interest by using its own administrative, technical and other resources, without being obliged to call on outside entities not forming part of its own departments. In such a case, there can be no question of a contract for pecuniary interest concluded with an entity legally distinct from the contracting authority. There is therefore no need to apply the Community rules in the field of public procurement.

33. It is necessary to recall at the outset that, according to settled case-law, while direct taxation falls within the competence of the Member States, the latter must none the less exercise that competence in a manner consistent with European Union law (Case C‑334/02 Commission v France [2004] ECR I-2229, paragraph 21; Case C‑155/09 Commission v Greece [2011] ECR I-0000, paragraph 39; and Case C‑10/10 Commission v Austria [2011] ECR I-0000, paragraph 23).

42. It is for the national court to decide whether the workers in question have made such use of the vehicles made available to them.

19. Those provisions can be distinguished from the general rule provided for in Article 13(2) of that regulation, according to which a worker employed in the territory of one Member State is to be subject to the legislation of that State (see judgment in Jeltes and Others , C‑443/11, EU:C:2013:224, paragraph 20).

48. As regards, next, the principle of effectiveness, it must be recalled that, from the point of view of the analysis required by the case-law cited at paragraph 38 above, the question whether a national procedural provision renders the exercise of an individual’s rights under the European Union legal order impossible in practice or excessively difficult must be assessed taking into consideration, as appropriate, the principles which lie at the basis of the national legal system concerned, such as the protection of the rights of the defence, the principle of legal certainty and the proper conduct of the proceedings (see inter alia, to that effect, Peterbroeck , paragraph 14, and Pontin , paragraph 47).

33 As to the alleged breach of the principle of proportionality, it must be pointed out that, according to the case-law of the Court, in order to establish whether a provision of Community law complies with that principle, it must be ascertained whether the means which it employs are suitable for the purpose of achieving the desired objective and whether they do not go beyond what is necessary to achieve it (see, in particular, Case C-233/94 Germany v Parliament and Council [1997] ECR I-2405, paragraph 54).

75 First, the fixing of a derived intervention price was not governed, prior to the entry into force of Regulation No 1785/81, by the same rules as those applicable thereafter, particularly at the time of the 1998/99 marketing year.

43. As regards public security, the Court has held that this covers both a Member State’s internal and its external security (see, inter alia, Case C‑273/97 Sirdar [1999] ECR I‑7403, paragraph 17; Case C‑285/98 Kreil [2000] ECR I‑69, paragraph 17; Case C‑423/98 Albore [2000] ECR I‑5965, paragraph 18; and Case C‑186/01 Dory [2003] ECR I‑2479, paragraph 32).

18 As far as the criteria for the award of contracts is concerned, Article 29 ( 1 ) provides that the authorities awarding contracts must base their decision either on the lowest price only or, when the award is made to the most economically advantageous tender, on various criteria according to the contract : e.g . price, period for completion, running costs, profitability, technical merit .

79 In providing that the Member States may adopt or retain in force stricter provisions in the field covered by the Money Laundering Directive to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing, Article 5 of that directive does not grant the Member States a power or obligation to legislate by virtue of EU law, but merely, unlike the provisions laid down in Chapter II of the directive, recognises the power which the Member States enjoy under national law to provide for such stricter provisions outside the framework of the regime established by the directive (see, by analogy, judgment in Julián Hernández and Others, C‑198/13, EU:C:2014:2055, paragraph 44).

37. In that regard, as has already been stated, products such as those at issue in the main proceedings have, as a result of the addition of water and other substances, lost the taste, smell and appearance of a beverage produced from a particular fruit or natural product, that is to say a fermented beverage. The particular organoleptic characteristics of those products, which define their essential character, therefore correspond to those of products classified in heading 2208 of the CN.

40. It should be noted that, while, in view of the division of responsibilities in the preliminary-ruling procedure, it is for the referring court alone to determine the subject-matter of the questions which it proposes to refer to the Court, it is for the Court to examine the conditions under which the case was referred to it by the national court, in order to assess whether it has jurisdiction (see, to that effect, Joined Cases C‑92/09 and C‑93/09 Volker und Markus Schecke and Eifert [2010] ECR I‑11063, paragraph 39, and Case C‑84/11 Susisalo and Others [2012] ECR, paragraph 16).

31. It follows that the applicability of the private investor test to a public intervention depends, not on the way in which the advantage was conferred, but on the classification of the intervention as a decision adopted by a shareholder of the undertaking in question.

36. First of all, it should be pointed out that, although a certain number of overriding reasons in the public interest have indeed been recognised by the Court’s case-law, such as the objectives of consumer protection and the prevention of both fraud and incitement to squander money on gambling, as well as the general need to preserve the social order (see, in particular, Liga Portuguesa de Futebol Profissional and Bwin International , paragraph 56), which may justify a restriction on the freedom to provide services, the fact remains that those objectives cannot be relied upon to justify discriminatory restrictions (see, to that effect, Case C-55/94 Gebhard [1995] ECR I-4165, paragraph 37; Gambelli and Others , paragraph 65; Placanica and Others , paragraph 49, and Liga Portuguesa de Futebol Profissional and Bwin International , paragraph 60).

24 At the outset, it should be observed that Article 9(1)(a) of the Directive imposes a duty on the employer to be in possession of documents containing an assessment of the risks to safety and health at work, documents to which workers and/or their representatives with specific responsibility for the safety and health of workers must have access under Article 10(3)(a) of the Directive.

28 In those circumstances, where, in regulating internal situations, domestic legislation adopts the same solutions as those adopted in Community law so as to provide for one single procedure in comparable situations, it is clearly in the Community interest that, in order to forestall future differences of interpretation, provisions or concepts taken from Community law should be interpreted uniformly, irrespective of the circumstances in which they are to apply (see, to this effect, the judgment in Dzodzi, cited above, paragraph 37).

19. Mrs van Pommeren-Bourgondiën, who has Netherlands nationality, resides in Belgium but worked in the Netherlands for her entire working life. Since 1997 she has received invalidity benefit under the WAO at the highest rate under the invalidity benefit scheme.

23 That conclusion is, moreover, borne out by the purpose, as acknowledged by the Court, of the exemption from duty under heading 9705 of the CN, namely facilitating international trade in objects of cultural and educational value (Daiber, paragraph 15).

9 However, the concept of pay as thus defined cannot cover social security schemes or benefits such as, for example, retirement pensions, which are directly governed by legislation without any element of agreement within the undertaking or the occupational branch concerned and which are obligatorily applicable to general categories of workers. These schemes assure for the workers the benefit of a statutory scheme, to whose financing workers, employers and, possibly, the public authorities contribute in a measure determined less by the employment relationship between the employer and the worker than by considerations of social policy (Case 80/70 Defrenne v Belgium [1971] ECR 445, paragraphs 7 and 8).

67 However, it is only in circumstances where the action for annulment would unquestionably have been admissible that the Court has held that a person may not plead the invalidity of an act of the European Union before a national court (see, to that effect, judgments of 9 March 1994, TWD Textilwerke Deggendorf, C‑188/92, EU:C:1994:90, paragraphs 17 to 25; of 30 January 1997, Wiljo, C‑178/95, EU:C:1997:46, paragraphs 15 to 25; of 15 February 2001, Nachi Europe, C‑239/99, EU:C:2001:101, paragraphs 29 to 40; and of 22 October 2002, National Farmers’ Union, C‑241/01, EU:C:2002:604, paragraphs 34 to 39). In numerous other cases, the Court has held that it was not established that the action would unquestionably have been admissible (see, inter alia, to that effect, judgments of 23 February 2006, Atzeni and Others, C‑346/03 and C‑529/03, EU:C:2006:130, paragraphs 30 to 34; of 8 March 2007, Roquette Frères, C‑441/05, EU:C:2007:150, paragraphs 35 to 48; of 29 June 2010, E and F, C‑550/09, EU:C:2010:382, paragraphs 37 to 52; of 18 September 2014, Valimar, C‑374/12, EU:C:2014:2231, paragraphs 24 to 38; and of 5 March 2015, Banco Privado Português and Massa Insolvente do Banco Privado Português, C‑667/13, EU:C:2015:151, paragraphs 27 to 32).

41. Thus, Question 1 seeks an examination, in the light of the duty under Article 296 TFEU to state reasons, of the legality of the entry of DHKP‑C on the list and its maintenance on that list by operation of the provisions identified in paragraph 20 above, which, taken together, cover the period between 30 August 2002, the date on which the conduct alleged in the indictment began, and 28 June 2007, the day before the date on which Decision 2007/445 came into effect (‘the inclusion of DHKP-C on the list during the period prior to 29 June 2007’).

60. It must also be borne in mind that Article 7 of the Charter, mentioned by the referring court in its question, must be read in a way which respects the obligation to take into consideration the child’s best interests, recognised in Article 24(2) of that Charter, and taking into account the fundamental right of a child to maintain on a regular basis personal relationships and direct contact with both of his or her parents, stated in Article 24(3) (see, to that effect, Case C‑540/03 Parliament v Council [2006] ECR I‑5769, paragraph 58). Moreover, it is apparent from recital 33 in the preamble to Regulation No 2201/2003 that that regulation recognises the fundamental rights and observes the principles of the Charter, while, in particular, seeking to ensure respect for the fundamental rights of the child as set out in Article 24 of the Charter. Accordingly, the provisions of that regulation cannot be interpreted in such a way that they disregard that fundamental right of the child, the respect for which undeniably merges into the best interests of the child (see, to that effect, Case C‑403/09 PPU Detiček [2009] ECR I‑0000, paragraphs 53 to 55).

60. Moreover, the Court has already held that practical difficulties cannot of themselves justify the infringement of a fundamental freedom guaranteed by the Treaty (see Papillon , paragraph 54 and the case-law cited).

37 Furthermore, it should be borne in mind that, as a justification for derogating from the right of residence of Union citizens or members of their families, the concepts of ‘public policy’ and ‘public security’ must be interpreted strictly, so that their scope cannot be determined unilaterally by the Member States without being subject to control by the EU institutions (see, to this effect, judgments of 4 December 1974, van Duyn, 41/74, EU:C:1974:133, paragraph 18; of 27 October 1977, Bouchereau, 30/77, EU:C:1977:172, paragraph 33; of 29 April 2004, Orfanopoulos and Oliveri, C‑482/01 and C‑493/01, EU:C:2004:262, paragraphs 64 and 65; of 27 April 2006, Commission v Germany, C‑441/02, EU:C:2006:253, paragraph 34; and of 7 June 2007, Commission v Netherlands, C‑50/06, EU:C:2007:325, paragraph 42).

87 The same will apply where the substance is a residue whose composition is not suitable for the use made of it or where special precautions must be taken when it is used owing to the environmentally hazardous nature of its composition.

77. Once the authorities of one Member State have issued a driving licence in accordance with Article 1(1) of Directive 91/439, the other Member States are not entitled to investigate whether the conditions for issue laid down by that directive have been observed. The possession of a driving licence issued by one Member State has to be regarded as constituting proof that, on the day that licence was issued, its holder fulfilled those conditions ( Wiedemann and Funk , paragraph 53; Zerche and Others , paragraph 50).

29. En premier lieu, il convient d’examiner si l’article en cause présente les caractéristiques et les propriétés objectives permettant son classement dans la position 7318 de la NC.

45 It is necessary, next, to point out that the annual payments of aid cannot be considered to be definitive, since the aid thereby received may be repaid by the beneficiary where he fails to fully satisfy the conditions for payment thereof throughout the five-year period and that for the whole area declared (see, to that effect, judgments of 24 May 2012 in Hehenberger, C‑188/11, EU:C:2012:312, paragraph 34, and 7 February 2013 in Pusts, C‑454/11, EU:C:2013:64, paragraphs 36 and 37).

20. As a preliminary point, it should be recalled that Directive 2002/22 is intended to create a harmonised regulatory framework which secures, in the electronic communications sector, the delivery of universal service, that is to say, of a defined minimum set of services to all end-users at an affordable price. According to Article 1(1) of that directive, one of its objectives is to ensure the availability throughout the Community of good-quality publicly available services through effective competition and choice (see, to that effect, judgment in Base and Others , C‑389/08, EU:C:2010:584, paragraph 32 and the case-law cited).

51. As a preliminary point, it must be recalled that it is not the task of the Court, in preliminary ruling proceedings, to rule upon the compatibility of national law with Community law or to interpret national law. The Court is, however, competent to give the national court full guidance on the interpretation of Community law in order to enable it to determine the issue of compatibility for the purposes of the case before it (see, inter alia, Case C‑292/92 Hünermund and Others [1993] ECR I‑6787, paragraph 8; Case C-237/04 Enirisorse [2006] ECR I‑2843, paragraph 24; and Centro Europa 7 , paragraphs 49 and 50).

28. In this case, the provisions of the BNatSchG 2002 to which the Commission refers in its originating application are almost identical to the provisions in the BNatSchG 1998 that it criticises in its reasoned opinion.

34. Quatrièmement, il convient de rappeler que les États membres sont tenus d’appliquer les dispositions en matière de TVA telles qu’elles ont été formulées, même s’ils considèrent qu’elles sont perfectibles (voir arrêt du 6 octobre 2005, Commission/Espagne, C‑204/03, Rec. p. I‑8389, point 28).

30. Accordingly, in the consideration of an application for access to documents relating to a leniency programme submitted by a person who is seeking to obtain damages from another person who has taken advantage of such a leniency programme, it is necessary to ensure that the applicable national rules are not less favourable than those governing similar domestic claims and that they do not operate in such a way as to make it practically impossible or excessively difficult to obtain such compensation (see, to that effect, Courage and Crehan , paragraph 29) and to weigh the respective interests in favour of disclosure of the information and in favour of the protection of that information provided voluntarily by the applicant for leniency.

15. At the outset it must be pointed out that, according to settled case‑law, although direct taxation falls within the competence of the Member States, the latter must none the less exercise that competence in a manner consistent with Community law (see Case C‑80/94 Wielockx [1995] ECR I‑2493, paragraph 16; Case C‑35/98 Verkooijen [2000] ECR I‑4071, paragraph 32; Case C‑334/02 Commission v France [2004] ECR I‑2229, paragraph 21; Case C‑315/02 Lenz [2004] ECR I‑7063, paragraph 19; and Case C‑319/02 Manninen [2004] ECR I‑7477, paragraph 19).

43. Accordingly, the Austrian legislation must be regarded as having existed on 31 December 1993 for the purposes of Article 57(1) EC.

24. Thus, in the context of this action, it is incumbent upon the Commission to prove that the practice followed in Finland adversely affects the system, laid down by Article 12(1) of the Habitats Directive, providing strict protection for the wolf as a species listed in Annex IV(a), on the ground that derogations from that system are not granted in compliance with the conditions laid down in Article 16(1) of the directive (see, to that effect, Commission v United Kingdom , paragraph 22).

Furthermore, although it is true that the more distinctive the earlier mark the greater the likelihood of confusion will be, such a likelihood of confusion cannot, however, be precluded where the distinctive character of the earlier mark is weak (judgment of 8 November 2016, BSH v EUIPO, C‑43/15 P, EU:C:2016:837, paragraph 62 and case-law cited).

30. It is true that the Court has held that, although certain actions between a public authority and a person governed by private law may come within the scope of civil and commercial matters, the position is otherwise where the public authority is acting in the exercise of its public powers (judgments in Sapir and Others , EU:C:2013:228, paragraph 33 and the case-law cited, and in Sunico and Others , EU:C:2013:545, paragraph 34 and the case-law cited).

50 In that regard, although, as the Advocate General observes at points 53 to 64 of his Opinion, SA HLMs are commercial companies, their activities are very narrowly circumscribed.

39 That interpretation of Directive 2003/87 is compatible with its primary objective, namely to protect the environment by means of a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions (see, to that effect, judgment of 28 April 2016 in Borealis Polyolefine and Others, C‑191/14, C‑192/14, C‑295/14, C‑389/14 and C‑391/14 to C‑393/14, EU:C:2016:311, paragraph 79) and cannot be invalidated by the fact that the classification of an installation as electricity generator, within the meaning of Article 3(u) of that directive, is subject to the condition that it produce electricity for sale to third parties.

33 THE FIRST QUESTION MUST THEREFORE BE ANSWERED AS FOLLOWS : ( A ) THE PROVISIONS OF THE TREATY RELATING TO THE FREE MOVEMENT OF GOODS AND TO AGRICULTURE AND THE RULES ON THE COMMON ORGANIZATION OF THE MARKET IN FRUIT AND VEGETABLES DO NOT PREVENT A MEMBER STATE FROM ADOPTING OR MAINTAINING MEASURES ( I ) ESTABLISHING A DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL FOR FRUIT PRODUCTION , COMPOSED OF MEMBERS APPOINTED BY THE MINISTER RESPONSIBLE , IN PARTICULAR FROM AMONG THE GROWERS INVOLVED , AND ( II)REQUIRING ONLY FRUIT GROWERS WITH A PLANTATION WHICH EXCEEDS A SPECIFIED SIZE TO REGISTER WITH THE SAID COUNCIL , TO FURNISH RETURNS AND INFORMATION ON THEIR ACTIVITIES IN THE INDUSTRY AND TO FINANCE THE ADMINISTRATIVE AND OTHER EXPENSES OF THE COUNCIL BY THE PAYMENT OF AN ANNUAL CHARGE , IN SO FAR AS THE ACTIVITIES OF THE COUNCIL CONSIST IN COMPILING STATISTICS , PROMOTING OR UNDERTAKING RESEARCH , MAKING THE RESULTS THUS OBTAINED AVAILABLE TO GROWERS AND GIVING GROWERS TECHNICAL ADVICE ABOUT FRUIT-GROWING . ( B)THE SAID PROVISIONS DO NOT PREVENT SUCH A BODY FROM DRAWING ATTENTION , IN ITS PUBLICITY , TO THE SPECIFIC QUALITIES OF FRUIT PRODUCED WITHIN THE MEMBER STATE IN QUESTION OR FROM ORGANIZING CAMPAIGNS TO PROMOTE THE SALE OF CERTAIN VARIETIES , MENTIONING THEIR PARTICULAR PROPERTIES , EVEN IF THOSE VARIETIES ARE TYPICAL OF NATIONAL PRODUCTION ; ON THE OTHER HAND , IT WOULD BE CONTRARY TO ARTICLE 30 OF THE TREATY FOR SUCH A BODY TO ENGAGE IN PUBLICITY INTENDED TO DISCOURAGE THE PURCHASE OF PRODUCTS FROM OTHER MEMBER STATES OR TO DISPARAGE THOSE PRODUCTS IN THE EYES OF CONSUMERS , OR TO ADVISE CONSUMERS TO PURCHASE DOMESTIC PRODUCTS SOLELY BY REASON OF THEIR NATIONAL ORIGIN . ( C)THE SAID PROVISIONS DO NOT PREVENT SUCH A BODY FROM ADDRESSING TO GROWERS , WITHIN THE FRAMEWORK OF ITS GENERAL ADVISORY ROLE , RECOMMENDATIONS CONCERNING THE QUALITY AND PRESENTATION OF THE FRUIT MARKETED ; ON THE OTHER HAND , IN VIEW OF THE EXHAUSTIVE NATURE OF THE SYSTEM OF COMMON QUALITY STANDARDS IT WOULD BE UNLAWFUL FOR SUCH A BODY TO ATTEMPT TO IMPOSE COMPLIANCE WITH STANDARDS DIFFERENT FROM THOSE COMMON STANDARDS , BY APPLYING ANY SORT OF SANCTIONS OR BY USING THE AUTHORITY VESTED IN IT BY ITS CONSTITUTION TO BRING PRESSURE TO BEAR ON GROWERS OR TRADERS . ( D)THE SAID PROVISIONS RENDER UNLAWFUL THE REQUIREMENT FOR GROWERS TO BECOME MEMBERS OF SUCH A BODY OR TO FINANCE ITS ACTIVITIES BY THE PAYMENT OF A CHARGE , IF AND IN SO FAR AS THOSE ACTIVITIES ARE CONTRARY TO THE SAID PROVISIONS . THE SECOND QUESTION

77. When an entity infringes competition rules, it falls to that entity, by virtue of the principle of personal responsibility, to answer for that infringement (see, to that effect, Case C‑49/92 P Commission v Anic Partecipazioni [1999] ECR I‑4125, paragraph 145, and Case C‑279/98 P Cascades v Commission [2000] ECR I‑9693, paragraph 78).

78 It falls, in principle, to the legal or natural person managing the undertaking in question when the infringement was committed to answer for that infringement, even if, when the Decision finding the infringement was adopted, another person had assumed responsibility for operating the undertaking.

22 It follows that Directive 2004/38 is not applicable to a situation such as that at issue in the main proceedings, as the Union citizen concerned has never made use of his right of freedom of movement and has always resided in the Member State of which he is a national (see judgment of 8 March 2011, Ruiz Zambrano, C‑34/09, EU:C:2011:124, paragraph 39). In so far as a Union citizen is not covered by the concept of ‘beneficiary’ for the purposes of Article 3(1) of Directive 2004/38, a member of his family is not covered by that concept either, given that the rights conferred by that directive on the family members of a beneficiary of the directive are not autonomous rights of those family members, but derived rights, acquired through their status as members of the beneficiary’s family (see judgments of 5 May 2011, McCarthy, C‑434/09, EU:C:2011:277, paragraph 42; of 15 November 2011, Dereci and Others, C‑256/11, EU:C:2011:734, paragraph 55; and of 8 May 2013, Ymeraga and Others, C‑87/12, EU:C:2013:291, paragraph 31).

39. It should be observed at the outset that, under Article 3(1) of Directive 2004/38, entitled ‘[b]eneficiaries’, that directive applies to ‘all Union citizens who move to or reside in a Member State other than that of which they are a national, and to their family members …’. Therefore, that directive does not apply to a situation such as that at issue in the main proceedings.

45 As regards the principle of proportionality, it requires that measures adopted by EU institutions do not exceed the limits of what is appropriate and necessary in order to attain the objectives legitimately pursued by the legislation in question; where there is a choice between several appropriate measures, recourse must be had to the least onerous, and the disadvantages caused must not be disproportionate to the aims pursued (see, to that effect, judgments of 16 December 1999, UDL, C‑101/98, EU:C:1999:615, paragraph 30, and of 17 March 2011, AJD Tuna, C‑221/09, EU:C:2011:153, paragraph 79 and the case-law cited).

25. In addition, as an element of the system of judicial resolution of tax disputes, arbitration tribunals dealing with taxation meet the requirement of permanence.

26. In this regard, the Court has held many times that where a transaction carried out by a legal person, such as the increase of its company capital or the amendment of its constitution, is subject to legal formalities under national law, that formality is necessary for the carrying‑on of that legal person’s business (see, in particular, Modelo I , paragraph 26; Case C-19/99 Modelo ( ‘ Modelo II ’ ) [2000] ECR I‑7213, paragraph 26; Case C-134/99 IGI [2000] ECR I‑7717, paragraph 24; Case C‑206/99 SONAE [2001] ECR I‑4679, paragraph 30; and Case C‑426/98 Commission v Greece [2002] ECR I-2793, paragraph 30) .

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 .

25. As set out in Article 67 of the Treaty, the free movement of capital entails the abolition of restrictions on the movement of capital belonging to persons resident in Member States and any discrimination based on the nationality or on the place of residence of the parties or on the place where such capital is invested. The First Directive provides, for the implementation of Article 67, for the complete liberalisation of certain capital movements and is intended to bring about the elimination of administrative obstacles which, although not taking the form of exchange authorisations or affecting the acquisition of foreign securities, none the less constitute a hindrance to the widest and swiftest liberalisation of capital movements between the Member States which, according to the preamble to the First Directive, is necessary for the attainment of the objectives of the European Community (see Case 157/85 Brugnoni and Ruffinengo [1986] ECR 2013, paragraphs 21 and 22).

87. In this regard, that statement must set forth clearly all the essential facts upon which the Commission is relying at that stage of the procedure (see Musique Diffusion française and Others v Commission , paragraph 14).

28 Furthermore, Article 8(1) of Regulation No 729/70 imposes on Member States the general obligation to take the measures necessary to satisfy themselves that the transactions financed by the EAGGF are actually carried out and are executed correctly, to prevent and deal with irregularities and to recover sums lost as a result of irregularities or negligence (Case C-8/88 Germany v Commission [1990] ECR I-2321, paragraph 17).

32. Such requirements necessarily entail that the particular circumstances of each breach of the principle of equal treatment should be taken into account. In the event of discriminatory dismissal, a situation of equality could not be restored without either reinstating the victim of discrimination or, in the alternative, granting financial compensation for the loss and damage sustained (judgment in Marshall , C‑271/91, EU:C:1993:335, paragraph 25).

56. In that regard, it follows from Article 207(1) TFEU – and, in particular, from the second sentence of that provision, in the words of which the common commercial policy belongs within the context of ‘the Union’s external action’ – that the common commercial policy relates to trade with non-member countries, not to trade in the internal market (see Case C‑414/11 Daiichi Sankyo and Sanofi-Aventis Deutschland [2013] ECR I‑0000, paragraph 50).

36. As for services principally and habitually carried out as part of a lawyer’s profession, the Court has stated that they are those of representing or defending the interests of a person ( von Hoffmann , paragraph 17).

31 That provision is framed in terms corresponding to those used by the Court in judgments which, in interpreting Articles 30 and 36 of the Treaty, have recognized in Community law the principle of the exhaustion of the rights conferred by a trade mark. It reiterates the case-law of the Court to the effect that the owner of a trade mark protected by the legislation of a Member State cannot rely on that legislation to prevent the importation or marketing of a product which was put on the market in another Member State by him or with his consent (see, in particular, Case 16/74 Centrafarm v Winthrop [1974] ECR 1183, paragraphs 7 to 11; Case C-10/89 CNL-SUCAL v HAG GF [1990] ECR I-3711, paragraph 12 ("HAG II"); and Case C-9/93 IHT Internationale Heiztechnik v Ideal Standard [1994] ECR I-2789, paragraphs 33 and 34).

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.

75 In order to answer that question it must be stated, first, that the general rules for the interpretation of the CN provide that the classification of goods is to be determined according to the terms of the headings and any section or chapter notes, the titles of sections, chapters and sub-chapters being provided for ease of reference only (judgment of 11 June 2015, Baby Dan, C‑272/14, EU:C:2015:388, paragraph 25).

En vertu de l’article 14 de la directive 1999/31, les États membres devaient prendre des mesures pour que les décharges autorisées ou déjà en exploitation au moment de la transposition de cette directive, à savoir au plus tard le 16 juillet 2001, ne puissent continuer à fonctionner que si toutes les mesures indiquées à cet article étaient mises en œuvre dès que possible et au plus tard le 16 juillet 2009.

26. As the Court has repeatedly held (see, inter alia, Case C-362/89 D’Urso and Others [1991] ECR I-4105, paragraph 9, and Case C-399/96 Europièces [1998] ECR I-6965, paragraph 37), Directive 77/187 is intended to safeguard the rights of workers in the event of a change of employer by making it possible for them to continue to work for the new employer on the same conditions as those agreed with the transferor. The purpose of the directive is to ensure, as far as possible, that the contract of employment or employment relationship continues unchanged with the transferee, in order to prevent the workers concerned from being placed in a less favourable position solely as a result of the transfer (see Case 287/86 Ny Mølle Kro [1987] ECR 5465, paragraph 25).

32. Conformément à une jurisprudence constante de la Cour, la suppression d’une aide illégale par voie de récupération est la conséquence logique de la constatation de son illégalité (arrêts du 14 avril 2011, Commission/Pologne, C-331/09, Rec. p. I-2933, point 54, ainsi que du 28 juillet 2011, Diputación Foral de Vizcaya e.a./Commission, C‑471/09 P à C-473/09 P, point 100). Partant, l’État membre destinataire d’une décision l’obligeant à récupérer des aides illégales est tenu, en vertu de l’article 288, quatrième alinéa, TFUE, de prendre toutes les mesures propres à assurer l’exécution de ladite décision (voir, notamment, arrêts du 26 juin 2003, Commission/Espagne, C-404/00, Rec. p. I-6695, point 21, et Commission/Pologne, précité, point 55).

72 In that regard, it should be observed that, even if that national provision were to be interpreted in that way, the obligation imposed by that provision does not relate as such to the product or its packaging and therefore does not, of itself, constitute a rule laying down requirements to be met by goods, such as requirements concerning their labelling or packaging (see, in particular, Case C-123/00 Bellamy and English Shop Wholesale [2001] ECR I-2795, paragraph 18).

61. That applies all the more strongly where, as in the main proceedings, the mortgaged property is the family home of the consumer whose rights have been infringed, since that means of consumer protection is limited to payment of damages and interest and does not make it possible to prevent the definitive and irreversible loss of that dwelling.

28. In the context of that cooperation, the national court seised of the dispute, which alone has direct knowledge of the facts of the main action and must assume responsibility for the subsequent judicial decision, is in the best position to assess, having regard to the particular features of the case, whether a preliminary ruling is necessary to enable it to give judgment and the relevance of the questions which it refers to the Court (see, inter alia, Lourenço Dias , cited above, paragraph 15; Case C-390/99 Canal Satélite Digital [2002] ECR I-607, paragraph 18; and Siemens and ARGE Telekom , cited above, paragraph 34).

19 According to the Hauptzollamt, it should be possible to derogate from that system in the event of irregularities on the part of a purchaser in calculating the reference quantities initially allocated.

9. Il convient de rappeler que, selon une jurisprudence constante, d’une part, 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 les changements intervenus par la suite ne sauraient être pris en compte par la Cour (voir, notamment, arrêt du 27 octobre 2005, Commission/Luxembourg, C‑23/05, Rec. p. I‑9535, point 9).

34. The wording of Article 11(2) therefore calls for a restrictive interpretation and, in any event, cannot in itself be extrapolated as advocated by the Italian Government.

32 Article 20 of that regulation provides that internal borders may be crossed at any point without a border check on persons, irrespective of their nationality, being carried out. Under Article 2, point 10, of that regulation, ‘border checks’ means the checks carried out at border crossing points to ensure that persons may be authorised to enter the territory of the Member States or authorised to leave it (judgments of 22 June 2010, MelkiandAbdeli, C‑188/10 and C‑189/10, EU:C:2010:363, paragraph 67, and of 19 July 2012, Adil, C‑278/12 PPU, EU:C:2012:508, paragraph 51).

28 In addition, where the various language versions differ, the scope of the provision in question cannot be determined on the basis of an interpretation which is exclusively textual, but must be interpreted by reference to the purpose and general scheme of the rules of which it forms part (see, to that effect, judgments of 3 March 2005 in Fonden Marselisborg Lystbådehavn, C‑428/02, EU:C:2005:126, paragraph 42 and the case-law cited, and of 13 June 2013 in Promociones y Construcciones BJ 200, C‑125/12, EU:C:2013:392, paragraph 22 and the case-law cited).

142 It is settled case-law that the statement of objections must set forth clearly all the essential facts upon which the Commission is relying at that stage of the procedure. The essential procedural safeguard which the statement of objections constitutes is an application of the fundamental principle of Community law which requires the right to a fair hearing to be observed in all proceedings (Joined Cases 100/80 to 103/80 Musique Diffusion Française and Others v Commission [1983] ECR 1825, paragraphs 10 and 14).

36. Even if the Board is a public body, it does not in the circumstances of the case appear that the advertising campaign was funded by resources made available to the national authorities. On the contrary, the judgment making the reference makes it clear that the monies used by the Board for the purpose of funding the advertising campaign were collected from its members who benefited from the campaign by means of compulsory levies earmarked for the organisation of that advertising campaign. Since the costs incurred by the public body for the purposes of that campaign were offset in full by the levies imposed on the undertakings benefiting therefrom, the Board’s action did not tend to create an advantage which would constitute an additional burden for the State or that body (see Joined Cases C-72/91 and C-73/91 Sloman Neptun [1993] ECR I-887, paragraph 21).

58. In any event, the Court has already had occasion to state that a regulation specifying the conditions for classification in a tariff heading or subheading of the CN cannot have retroactive effect (see, to that effect, Siemens , 30/71, EU:C:1971:111, paragraph 8; Gervais-Danone , 77/71, EU:C:1971:129, paragraph 8; and Biegi , 158/78, EU:C:1979:87, paragraph 11).

38 In the case at issue, the Finnish Government correctly points out that the only foreseeable reuses of leftover stone in its existing state, for example in embankment work or in the construction of harbours and breakwaters, necessitate, in most cases, potentially long-term storage operations which constitute a burden to the holder and are also potentially the cause of precisely the environmental pollution which Directive 75/442 seeks to reduce. The reuse is therefore not certain and is only foreseeable in the longer term, with the result that the leftover stone can only be regarded as extraction residue which its holder `intends or is required to discard' within the meaning of Directive 75/442, and thus falls within the scope of head Q 11 of Annex I to that directive.

95. In addition, to make the reparation of loss or damage conditional upon the requirement that there must have been a prior finding by the Court of an infringement of Community law attributable to a Member State would be contrary to the principle of the effectiveness of Community law, since it would preclude any right to reparation so long as the presumed infringement had not been the subject of an action brought by the Commission under Article 169 of the Treaty and of a finding of an infringement by the Court. Rights arising for individuals out of Community provisions having direct effect in the domestic legal systems of the Member States cannot depend on the Commission ' s assessment of the expediency of taking action against a Member State pursuant to Article 169 of the Treaty or on the delivery by the Court of any judgment finding an infringement (see, to this effect, Joined Cases 314/81, 315/81, 316/81 and 83/82 Waterkeyn and Others [1982] ECR 4337, paragraph 16).

16 THEREFORE THE ANSWER TO THE QUESTION SUBMITTED MUST BE THAT IF THE COURT FINDS IN PROCEEDINGS UNDER ARTICLES 169 TO 171 OF THE EEC TREATY THAT A MEMBER STATE ' S LEGISLATION IS INCOMPATIBLE WITH THE OBLIGATIONS WHICH IT HAS UNDER THE TREATY THE COURTS OF THAT STATE ARE BOUND BY VIRTUE OF ARTICLE 171 TO DRAW THE NECESSARY INFERENCES FROM THE JUDGMENT OF THE COURT . HOWEVER , IT SHOULD BE UNDERSTOOD THAT THE RIGHTS ACCRUING TO INDIVIDUALS DERIVE , NOT FROM THAT JUDGMENT , BUT FROM THE ACTUAL PROVISIONS OF COMMUNITY LAW HAVING DIRECT EFFECT IN THE INTERNAL LEGAL ORDER .

24 A duty of the kind described by the national court is not a general tax since it is not intended to apply to all economic transactions in the Member State concerned (see, to this effect, Solisnor-Estaleiros Navais, paragraph 17, and Case C-208/91 Beaulande v Directeur des Services Fiscaux, Nantes [1992] ECR I-6709, paragraph 16). According to Paragraph 14.1.8 of the FAG, Paragraph 1 of the Wiener GStV and Paragraph 1 of the Oö GStG, the duty applies only to a limited category of goods, being levied only on the supply for consideration of ice cream (including fruits processed therein or added thereto) and of beverages, in each case including the containers and accessories sold with the products.

26 As regards the Portuguese Government's argument that it is clear from various documents and, in particular, from a declaration of the Council that ISD was excluded from the scope of Article 5(1) of the Directive, there is no basis for that contention in the wording of the Directive. Moreover, according to settled case-law, declarations recorded in Council minutes in the course of preparatory work leading to the adoption of a directive cannot be used for the purpose of interpreting that directive where no reference is made to the content of the declaration in the wording of the provision in question, and, moreover, such declarations have no legal significance (see Case C-292/89 Antonissen [1991] ECR I-745, paragraph 18, and Joined Cases C-197/94 and C-252/94 Bautiaa and Société Française Maritime [1996] ECR I-505, paragraph 51).

71. Such a solution is, in addition, supported by the need for uniform application of that regulation (see, to that effect, judgment in Weiss und Partner , C‑14/07, EU:C:2008:264, paragraph 60 and the case-law cited).

48. The prohibition of discrimination, which is one of the fundamental principles of Community law, requires that comparable situations are not treated differently unless such difference in treatment is objectively justified (see, inter alia, Germany v Council , cited above, paragraph 67).

82. It must be recalled that the Commission is bound, in any application lodged under Article 226 EC, to state the precise complaints on which the Court of Justice is to adjudicate and also, at least briefly, the elements of law and of fact on which those complaints are based (see, in particular, Case C‑375/95 Commission v Greece [1997] ECR I‑5981, paragraph 35, and Case C‑202/99 Commission v Italy [2001] ECR I‑9319, paragraph 20).

40. In those circumstances, it cannot be inferred from the provisions of the FEU Treaty concerning freedom of establishment that that Member State would be required to exercise — asymmetrically, moreover — its taxation powers so as to permit the deduction of losses from operations whose results, if they were positive, would not in any event be taxed.