The Advocate General Tanchev, in the Case C‑34/17 (Eamonn Donnellan v. The Revenue Commissioners), delivered on 8 March 2018 the following Opinion on Artt. 12 and 14 of the Council Directive 2010/24/EU and on Article 47 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.
The main proceedings require the Court to rule on the consequences following when a substantial administrative fine (‘the disputed claim’) is imposed by Member State A (here Greece) on a person resident in Member State B (here Ireland) in circumstances in which the disputed claim was not notified by Member State A to that person until after, rather than before, Member State A had issued to Member Stated B a Uniform Instrument Permitting Enforcement (‘the impugned enforcement Instrument’) with respect to the disputed claim.
The impugned enforcement Instrument was issued pursuant to Article 12 of Council Directive 2010/24/EU of 16 March 2010 concerning mutual assistance for the recovery of claims relating to taxes, duties and other measures.
The question to be answered is whether there is any scope for such a person to challenge the impugned enforcement Instrument, and/or measures taken by the requested authority to enforce it, in the courts of Member State B (Ireland) rather than Member State A (Greece), on the basis of Article 47 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (‘the Charter’) and the right to effective judicial protection.
In the light of a thorough analysis of the facts of the case and of the relevant applicable provisions, the Advocate General deems that the question referred by the High Court (Ireland) should be answered as follows:
In the circumstances of the main proceedings, and considering the full effectiveness of EU law, a national court is not precluded by Article 14(1) and (2) of Council Directive 2010/24/EU of 16 March 2010 concerning mutual assistance for the recovery of claims relating to taxes, duties and other measures when determining the enforceability of a ‘uniform instrument permitting enforcement’ from:
(i) applying the right to effective judicial protection under Article 47 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union in relation to the enforcement request;
(ii) taking account of the objectives of Directive 2010/24 to provide mutual assistance while abiding by the right to effective judicial protection under Article 47 of the Charter.
