Non-discrimination and free movement in a Member State to Member State fiscal dispute: Case C-591/17 Austria v. Germany: Case C-591/17 Austria v. Germany, EU:C:2019:504
| Author | Augustin Chapuis-Doppler,Vincent Delhomme |
| Date | 01 December 2019 |
| DOI | 10.1177/1023263X19889937 |
| Published date | 01 December 2019 |
| Subject Matter | Case note |
Case note
Non-discrimination and free
movement in a Member State
to Member State fiscal dispute:
Case C-591/17 Austria v. Germany
Augustin Chapuis-Doppler* and Vincent Delhomme**
Abstract
In its judgement in the case of Austria v. Germany, the Court of Justice of the EU found the new
German motorway financing scheme to be in breach of EU law, namely Articles 18, 34, 56 and 92
TFEU. This decision is noteworthy in several regards. It is a snub for the Commission, which had
previously decided to terminate its infringement procedure against Germany. It provides guidance
for Member States wishing to reform some of their tax arrangements according to the ‘user pays’
and ‘polluter pays’ principles. Finally, it raises interesting questions regarding the application of
Article 34 TFEU to fiscal measures.
Keywords
Article 18 TFEU, Article 259 TFEU, Article 34 TFEU, Article 56 TFEU, fiscal measures, freedom of
movement, non-discrimination, ‘user pays’ and ‘polluter pays’ principles
1. Background to the case
After a political campaign marked by populism, the German government presented a legislative
proposal aimed at charging foreigners for the use of German motorways without increasing the
burden on German citizens. The law was passed in 2015 and prompted howls of indignation on the
part of other Member States, namely Austria and the Netherlands.
1
The Commission opened an
* Legal Adviser at the Secr´
etariat g´
en´
eral des affaires europ´
eennes (SGAE), Paris, France
** Senior Academic Assistant, College of Europe and PhD candidate, UC Louvain, Bruges, Belgium
Corresponding author:
Vincent Delhomme, College of Europe, Dijver 11, 8000 Brugge, Belgium.
E-mail: vincent.delhomme@coleurope.eu
1. J. Quatremer, ‘La Cour de justice europ´eenne rappelle `a la Commission qu’elle est gardienne des Trait´es et non des
int´erˆetsallemands’, Liberation Blog Les Coulisses de Bruxelles (2019), http://bruxelles.blogs.liberation.fr/2019/06/23/
la-cour-de-justice-europeenne-rappelle-la-commission-quelle-est-gardienne-des-traites-et-non-des-interets-allemands/.
Maastricht Journal of European and
Comparative Law
2019, Vol. 26(6) 849–858
ªThe Author(s) 2019
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DOI: 10.1177/1023263X19889937
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