On 25 April, 2007, the Scientific Institute of the Federal Ministry of Finance organized a public presentation dealing with the issue of how EU law affects the avoidance of double taxation. The two speakers, Helmut Loukota and Heinz Jirousek, developed their views according to which in the absence of tax treaty protection international double taxation both in its direct (juridical) and in its covert (economic) form constitutes an infringement of the fundamental freedoms provided by the EC treaty. As regards tax treaties, Community law allows Member States to share their taxing rights with other Member States differently; such differences in the treaty network with Member States neither produce undue discrimination nor allow EU citizens to claim most favoured treatment. However, under Community law it seems to be inevitable that Member States are bound to apply and to interpret their tax treaties in full respect of the fundamental freedoms guaranteed under the EC treaty; yet, this requirement has not been sufficiently observed by Member States, as was demonstrated in the discourse by presenting several case studies.