Keywords
Summary

Keywords

++++

1. Transport ° Establishment of a common policy ° Standstill rule in Article 76 of the Treaty ° Scope ° Road transport ° Introduction by a Member State of a tax on the use of roads by heavy goods vehicles and concurrent reduction in the tax on motor vehicles paid by national carriers ° Not permissible

(EEC Treaty, Art. 76)

2. Member States ° Obligations ° General obligation under Article 5 of the Treaty ° Concrete expression of that obligation in a given sphere by means of a specific article ° Declaration of failure to fulfil obligations solely with respect to the specific article

(EEC Treaty, Arts 5 and 76)

Summary

1. National legislation introducing a tax on the use of roads by heavy goods vehicles, payable by all users without distinction on grounds of nationality, and concurrently reducing the tax on motor vehicles, a reduction available only to national carriers, has the effect of altering unfavourably the situation of carriers from other Member States in relation to that of national carriers.

For that reason such legislation, even if it is limited in time, pending action by the Council to implement a common policy in that sector, and is intended to contribute to the protection of the environment, one of the essential objectives of the Community, conflicts with Article 76 of the Treaty by encouraging, by the increase in the contribution from heavy goods vehicles to the costs of road infrastructure, a switch from carriage by road to other modes of transport. In order to avoid increasing the difficulties to be overcome in establishing a common transport policy, Article 76 provides that until the provisions referred to in Article 75(1) have been laid down no Member State may, without the unanimous approval of the Council, make the various provisions governing the subject when the Treaty enters into force less favourable in their direct or indirect effect on carriers of other Member States as compared with carriers who are nationals of that State, and must, having regard to its objective, be construed as also prohibiting a Member State from withdrawing from carriers from other Member States the benefits of certain measures that may have been adopted with a view to rendering their situation more favourable in relation to that of national carriers.

2. Since Article 76 of the Treaty constitutes, in the sphere of transport, the concrete expression of the general obligation, imposed on Member States by Article 5 of the Treaty, to abstain from any measures which could jeopardize the attainment of the objectives of the Treaty, the effect of a declaration that a Member State has failed to fulfil its obligations under Article 76 is that there is no need for the Court to find a specific failure by that Member State of Article 5.