Court cases for everyone

Just in case you were in any doubt as to who really runs the show, Reuters has come up with list of legal actions initiated yesterday by the EU commission against member states.

These include a suit against Italy, requiring it to comply with an ECJ ruling on the award of concessions for horse-race betting services, "reasoned opinions" to Italy regarding lawyers' fees, to Slovakia regarding disclosure of privatisation agreements, and to Britain regarding implementation of a directive on motor insurance.

The commission is sending reasoned opinions to Italy and Germany concerning the procurement of water/wastewater management services and waste disposal services. It has referred Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, France, Greece, Ireland, Luxembourg and Spain to the ECJ over their failure to inform the commission of measures taken to implement EU rules on professional qualifications relating to EU newcomers Bulgaria and Romania.

It is also sending reasoned opinions to Belgium, the Czech Republic and Spain for failing to inform it of measures taken to implement other rules on recognising professional qualifications.

Meanwhile, the commission has closed a case against France over a domestic law on current account interest. It said France had now abolished its legislation that formally prohibited banks from offering interest on current accounts to their customers.

Spain is being taken to the ECJ as the commission deems its rules on the establishment of retail outlets are incompatible with EU law. Malta will receive a reasoned opinion telling it to amend its car registration tax rules, which the Commission said discriminated against second-hand cars brought into Malta from other EU countries.

The commission has formally requested Hungary to change its tax law provisions which limit the granting of a tax incentive to taxpayers who engage in research or development activities performed on premises located in Hungary.

Last but not least, the commission has instructed Spain to bring in line with EU rules its administrative practice for determining how much VAT should be paid for barter transactions.

All this because Mr Monnet wanted to stop Germany going to war with France!

COMMENT THREAD