There’s life beyond the Intel judgment.
The Court of Justice handed down an interesting one about the competence to conclude international agreements in the area of the common foreign and security policy in Case C-658/11 European Parliament v Council EU:C:2014:2025. Continue reading
There were nearly 30 000 deaths caused by road traffic accidents in the EU in 2012 (see table showing the evolution of road fatalities here. That’s a lot.
The Court of Justice’s judgment in Case C-43/12 Commission v Parliament and Council EU:C:2014:298 shows that attempts to put in place effective legislation to reduce the number of fatalities are frought with legal difficulties. Continue reading
In this preliminary reference case, the question was whether a Spanish tax on retail sales of certain hydrocarbons (“Impuesto sobre las Ventas Minoristas de Deteminados Hidrocarburos” or the “IVMDH”) was in compliance with Article 3(2) of Directive 92/12.
Readers interested in the facts and the tax aspects of this case may have a look at the press release by the Court here. For those not interested, the CoJ found, in a nutshell, that a tax on the retail sale of mineral oils such as the IVMDH is not in compliance with Article 3(2) of the Directive as it cannot be regarded as pursuing a specific purpose, i.e. it is not itself directed at protecting health and the environment.
We consider more interesting the second part of the CoJ judgment regarding the possibility and the conditions for limiting its temporal effects. Continue reading
EU litigation 