CJEU - Recent Developments in Value Added Tax 2023

1. The transfer of preliminary rulings jurisdiction to the General Court of the E.U.

1.1. Background

To avoid a Court of Justice backlog or an excessive duration of procedures at the Court, the Treaty of Nice (signed in 2000 and entered into force in 2003) had provided for two possibilities to change the division of work between the European Courts.

Both can be activated by the same procedure: a regulation of the European Parliament and the Council acting in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure either on the proposal of the Commission after consultation of the Court of Justice or at the request of the Court of Justice after consultation of the Commission

The first is the possibility to create specialized Courts attached to the General Court to decide some cases in specific areas (now Art. 257 of the TFEU). The second is the possibility to transfer some preliminary references to the General Court “in specific areas laid down by the Statute of the Court of Justice” (Art. 256 para. 3 and Art. 281 TFEU).

S. 50In December 2022, the Court of Justice decided to activate this second possibility with a legislative request. This author agrees with Advocate General (AG) Wattel that this p...