Luxembourg, 20/06/2005 (Agence Europe) - The European Court of Justice is to rule on the second case relating to the so-called transit taxes, which it appears not to have had to rule on for some 30 years, and which have recently raised its head in the form of the tax levied by the Region of Sicily on an Algerian gas pipeline- known as the pipeline tax- and Belgian taxes on antennae, masts and pylons used in the mobile telecommunications network- known as the "pole tax".
The Commission is challenging Italy because in 2002, Sicily brought in an "environmental protection tax" on gas pipelines which targeted the Algerian gas pipeline which runs across the island, a tax which the Commission believes to be illegal. The Commission considers that this tax is equivalent to duty on imports (into the Community) and exports (to the other Member States), which runs entirely counter to the EEC treaty. It also states that it is the fact of owning installations which generates tax, whereas in this case, the taxable base is constituted by the volume of conduits expressed in cubic metres. The real objective of the Italian legislation is to hit the product imported (methane) and not the infrastructure itself, it adds. This tax runs counter to the common customs tariff and to the cooperation agreement signed with Algeria in 1976, it concludes.
The issue of the Belgian "poll" tax is at a more advanced stage, as Advocate General Philippe Léger considered that it is incompatible with the provisions of the 1997 directive on telecommunications services. The case relates to a tax brought in by the Commune of Fléron and another by the Commune of Schaerbeek, both of which were brought to the Belgian Council of State, by Mobistar and Belgacom Mobile respectively. The Council forwarded the dossier to the European Report of Justice, and the ruling is expected shortly.
The intended effect of both of these trials is a dissuasive one, according to observers close to the Commission, which has apparently noted a tendency within the Regions, Provinces and Communes of the EU to look into levying taxes on the basis of hosting a network (electricity, gas, telecommunications, water, and so on) on its territory. The first ruling on this kind of tax goes back some 30 years: this was a transit duty levied in the Italian port of Trieste, a tax which was ruled illegal by the Court.