(February 10, 2015) 

On February 10, 2015 the opinion of Advocate General M. Szpunar in Case C-76/14, Mihai Manea versus Instituția Prefectului — județul Brașov — Serviciul public comunitar regim permise de conducere și inmatriculare a vehiculelor (ECLI:EU:C:2015:74) was published on the website of the European Court of Justice (CJEU).

The following questions were referred to the CJEU for a preliminary ruling:

1.     Having regard to the provisions of Law No 9/2012 and to the subject of the tax provided for under that law, must Article 110 TFEU be interpreted as precluding a Member State of the European Union from establishing a tax on pollutant emissions applicable to all foreign motor vehicles on their registration in that Member State, but to national motor-vehicles on the transfer of ownership of such vehicles, except where such a tax or a similar tax has already been paid?

2.     Having regard to the provisions of Law No 9/2012 and to the subject of the tax provided for under that law, must Article 110 TFEU be interpreted as precluding a Member State of the European Union from establishing a tax on pollutant emissions which is applicable, in the case of all foreign motor vehicles, on their registration in that Member State, but which, in the case of national motor vehicles, is due only on the transfer of ownership of such vehicles, the result being that a foreign vehicle cannot be used unless the tax is paid, but a national vehicle can be used for an unlimited time without the tax being paid, until the ownership of that vehicle is transferred, if such a transfer takes place?

In the opinion Advocate General Szpunar proposes that the Court gives the following reply to the question referred for a preliminary ruling by the Cour de cassation:

1.     Article 110 TFEU must be interpreted as not precluding a Member State from establishing a single-payment tax on motor vehicles levied on the first registration of a vehicle on the territory of the Member State establishing that tax and on the first transfer of ownership of a vehicle already registered in that State, counting from the date on which that tax was established. That tax must be designed in such a way that the amount of the tax levied on second-hand vehicles imported from other Member States does not exceed the residual amount of the tax incorporated into the market value of national vehicles.

2.     Nor does Article 110 TFEU preclude a Member State, when establishing such a tax, from exempting from it motor vehicles on which a tax previously in force has already been paid, provided that the amount of the new tax levied on second-hand vehicles imported from other Member States does not exceed the residual amount of the earlier tax incorporated into the market value of national vehicles.

3.     That exemption cannot be conferred by virtue of payment of a tax previously in force which was not compatible with EU law.

Click here to be forwarded to the full text of the opinion as published on the website of the CJEU, which will open in a new window.

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