CJEU - Recent Developments in Value Added Tax 2017

1. S. 49Introduction

The protection of fundamental rights is one of the key principles of EU law. For a long time, the European Treaties did not incorporate a written list of these rights, and were only referring to the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (hereinafter: ECHR). The Treaties also referred to fundamental rights resulting from the constitutional traditions common to the Member States as general principles of Community law. Over the years the Court of Justice of the European Union (hereinafter: CJEU) has contributed greatly to the development of these fundamental rights. For example, the principle of legal certainty.

It was however with the adoption of the Treaty of Lisbon in late 2009 that these fundamental rights were further developed. A range of personal, civil, political, economic and social rights of EU citizens and residents were bundled in one single document and enshrined in EU law. This document is the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (hereinafter “the Charter”). The Charter became legally binding on the EU institutions and on national governments on 1 December 2009 and is enforceable by the CJEU.

The pream...