Opinion of Mr Advocate General Mancini

Mr President,

Members of the Court,

1. Once again the Court is called upon to interpret Regulation (EEC) No 1798/75 of the Council of 10 July 1975 on the importation free of Common Customs Tariff duties of educational, scientific and cultural materials (Official Journal 1975, L 184, p.1).

2. There can be no doubt that of all those questions it is Question 3 that is decisive: that is, the question whether Regulation No 1798/75 enables accessories to be imported duty free when the apparatus for which they are intended has not been imported. The answer to that question must logically precede the answers to the others, which concern the definition of an accessory for if Question 3 is answered in the negative, Questions 1, 2 and 4 become redundant or at least irrelevant to this case.

3. For the reasons I have stated above, I propose that the Court should give the following answer to Question 3 submitted by the Finanzgericht Baden-Württemberg by order of 7 February 1984 in the proceedings between Land Niedersachsen and Hauptzollamt Friedrichshafen:

1 Translated from the Italian.