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Article: EU BUDGET : FINNISH-COMMISSION SPAT OVER MILITARY EQUIPMENT GOES TO ECJ.(Brief article)
- Article from:
- European Report
- Article date:
- December 26, 2006
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In an intriguing case, the EU Court of Justice has recently been asked to decide if Finland is obliged to transfer import duties it levied on military equipment to the EU budget. Normally, all import duties collected by EU member states become part of the EC budget but the Finns are citing Article 296 of the EC Treaty in a bid to avoid paying. Under Article 296, member states cannot be asked to supply information, "disclosure of which it considers contrary to the essential interests of its security".
The matter will be dealt with in two parts. On 16 November, Finland appealed against an EU Court of First Instance ruling of 5 September 2006 (Case T-350/05), which ...