EU Requires Greece To Transpose Tax Directives

by Ulrika Lomas, for LawAndTax-News.com, Brussels

23 September 2008

The European Commission has sent Greece two reasoned opinions for failing to notify transposition measures relating to certain VAT changes, and also for failing to assist in countering tax evasion or avoidance.

The quest for better governance in the application of Community law requires member states to comply strictly with the time limits for transposing Community directives.

Member states not only have to transpose directives but must also notify the Commission of the measures they have adopted by entering the laws, regulations or administrative provisions in the Commission's ad hoc database.

If, as in the case of some directives, a transposition measure is not necessary, the member state concerned is nevertheless obliged to notify the Commission of this.

Since Greece had failed to inform the Commission as required of the steps it had taken to comply with Directives 2006/69/EC and 2006/112/EC, by letters dated January 29, 2008 and March 18, 2008 respectively, the Commission gave Greece notice to submit its comments on the matter within two months. Not having received any reply to these two letters, the Commission concludes that Greece has not transposed these two directives.

Directive 2006/69/EC brings in more effective and transparent rules allowing member states to adopt antifraud measures more flexibly than before while at the same time repealing certain derogations granted to individual member states. The directive entered into force on December 31, 2007.

Directive 2006/112/EC is a recasting of Directive 77/388/EEC, once commonly referred to as the "Sixth VAT Directive", to rationalise into a single statutory instrument the various amendments made to that directive over time. This directive entered into force on January 1, 2008.

If no response is received from Greece within the next two months, the Commission may decide to refer these two cases to the Court of Justice.

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