Keywords
Summary

Keywords

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1. Actions against Member States for failure to fulfil obligations ° Subject-matter of the proceedings ° Determination during the pre-litigation procedure ° Purely formal adaptation of the complaints after delivery of the reasoned opinion on account of an amendment of the national legislation ° Permissibility

(EEC Treaty, Art. 169)

2. Actions against Member States for failure to fulfil obligations ° Examination by the Court of their justification ° Inapplicability of the de minimis principle

(EEC Treaty, Art. 169)

3. Actions against Member States for failure to fulfil obligations ° Examination by the Court of their justification ° Situation to be taken into consideration ° Situation on the expiry of the period prescribed by the reasoned opinion

(EEC Treaty, Art. 169)

4. Tax provisions ° Internal taxation ° System of differential taxation on cars ° Application to imported cars of a higher rate of tax than that applied to cars of domestic manufacture ° Not permissible

(EEC Treaty, Art. 95)

Summary

1. Although it is true that the subject-matter of an application under Article 169 of the Treaty is limited to that defined during the pre-litigation procedure provided for by that article, and that therefore the Commission' s reasoned opinion and the application to the Court must be based on the same complaints, that requirement cannot go so far as to make it necessary that in every event the national provisions mentioned in the reasoned opinion and in the application should be completely identical. Where a change in the legislation occurred between those two phases in the procedure, it is sufficient that the system established by the legislation contested in the pre-litigation procedure has as a whole been maintained by the new measures which were adopted by the Member State after the issue of the reasoned opinion and have been challenged in the application.

2. In the context of an action under Article 169 of the Treaty, once the existence of a failure by a Member State to fulfil its obligations under the Treaty is accepted, the Member State in question is guilty of such a failure regardless of the frequency or the scale of the circumstances complained of.

3. In an action brought under Article 169 of the Treaty, the question whether there has been a failure to fulfil obligations must be examined on the basis of the position in which the Member State found itself at the end of the period laid down in the reasoned opinion and, consequently, the Court cannot take account of any subsequent changes.

4. A Member State which, with a view to protecting national production, applies higher rates of special consumer tax to private cars incorporating traditional technology imported from other Member States than are applied to private cars incorporating traditional technology produced or assembled on its territory, is guilty of a failure to fulfil its obligations under Article 95 of the Treaty.