CJEU – Recent Developments in Value Added Tax 2015

I. S. 72Introduction

The European Court of Justice (hereinafter CJEU) possesses the power to influence the development of EU law through the interpretation of the EU fundamental principles and the secondary law. The scope of the action of the CJEU, as is well known, depends upon its competence and procedural rules.

The division of competences established by the Treaty between the EU and the Member States and the subsidiarity principle could be considered a boundary to the request of interpretation provided by the CJEU. However, in many cases, it is plausible that the strict limitation of CJEU’s competence to certain subject matters could be the overtaken by virtue of achievement of the objectives of EU law which could facilitate a cross-cutting approach to the material cases. Tax law, particularly regarding indirect taxes, are one of the fields of exclusive competence of the EU, although their applications have several implications with other fields of the law (e.g., protection of human rights, execution of national procedural rules). To determine whether a crosscutting approach is possible, two examples are relevant. The first example is the recent Case C-105/14, Taricco in which the CJE...