CJEU - Recent Developments in Value Added Tax 2022

S. 345Transfer the VAT preliminary references to the General Court

Melchior Wathelet

1. Introduction

To avoid a Court backlog or an excessive duration of procedures at the Court of Justice (composed since 1989 of the Court of Justice and the General Court; at that time, Court of First Instance), the Treaty of Nice (signed in 2000 and entered into force in 2003) had provided two possibilities of reforms of the division of work between the two Courts.

The first is the possibility for the European Parliament and the Council to establish specialized courts attached to the General Court to decide some cases in specific areas (now Art. 257 of the TFEU, ex-Art. 225 a TEC). This could be decided on either a proposal from the Commission after consultation of the Court of Justice or a proposal of the Court of Justice after consultation of the Commission.

Besides the proposal of the Commission to create an EU Patent Court (which has never been discussed), only one specialized court has been created: the EU Civil Service Tribunal that became operational in 2005. This tribunal had to decide conflicts between the EU and its servants (these cases had been decided up to that point by the General Court). It w...