Keywords
Summary

Keywords

Community law — Principles — Equal treatment — Discrimination on grounds of nationality — Admission to museums, monuments, galleries, archaeological digs, parks and gardens classified as public monuments — Advantageous rates granted by local or decentralised State authorities only in favour of nationals and persons resident within the territory of those authorities who are aged over 60 or 65 years — Not permissible — Whether justifiable — No justification — (Arts 12 and 49 EC)

Summary

By allowing advantageous rates for admission to museums, monuments, galleries, archaeological digs, parks and gardens classified as public monuments, granted by local or decentralised State authorities only in favour of nationals and persons resident within the territory of those authorities running the cultural sites in question who are aged over 60 or 65 years, and by excluding from such advantages tourists who are nationals of other Member States and non-residents who fulfil the same objective age requirements, a Member States fails to fulfil its obligations under Articles 12 EC and 49 EC.

Such rules are prohibited by the above provisions and cannot be justified either by economic considerations relating to the costs involved in running cultural sites or on grounds of cohesion of the tax system, since there is no direct link between any taxation and the application of preferential rates for admission to the sites concerned.

see paras 12, 19-25, 28, operative part