Opinion of Mr Advocate General

Mr President,

Members of the Court,

1. The Sixth Council Directive of 17 May 1977 on the harmonization of the laws of the Member States relating to turnover taxes: uniform basis of assessment (77/388/EEC) (Official Journal 1977, L 145, p. 1) lists in Article 13 A (1) certain activities in the public interest which, precisely in view of the fact that they are in the public interest, are exempt from value-added tax. The exemptions provided for are compulsory, for that is clearly the only way in which the Community can ensure that its own resources may be collected in a uniform manner in all the Member States (eleventh recital in the preamble to the directive). The list refers in particular to the provision of medical care in the exercise of the medical and paramedical professions... (Article 13 À (1) (c)).

2. In the first place, the United Kingdom has objected that the Commission's application is inadmissible. The United Kingdom contends that the Commision did not, either in its letter giving formal notice of an infringement or in its reasoned opinion, indicate with sufficient clarity the subject-matter or the scope of its charges. Nor did it give any indication of the measures which the United Kingdom was supposed to take in order to comply with the relevant provisions of Community law or of the reasons on which the Commission's request was based. In other words, the applicant did not place the United Kingdom in a position to ascertain the true nature of the infringement it was alleged to have committed, thereby impairing the United Kingdom's possibility of presenting a defence from the very outset of the proceedings.

3. With regard to the substance of the case, the United Kingdom maintains that a systematic reading of Article 13 as a whole and the principle of equality render the Commission's interpretation of indent (c) untenable. The United Kingdom argues that if the wording of indent (c) is compared with that of indent (b), and if it is borne in mind that the expression medical care is used in the English version of both indents, the inescapable conclusion is that the exemption from value-added tax under indent (c) also covers goods supplied in connection with the services provided. Indent (b) exempts from value-added tax hospital and medical care and closely related activities undertaken by bodies governed by public law or, under social conditions comparable to those applicable to bodies governed by public law, by hospitals, centres for medical treatment or diagnosis and other duly recognized establishments of a similar nature (emphasis added).

4. In the light of the foregoing considerations, I propose that the Court uphold the application submitted on 19 November 1985 by the Commission of the European Communities against the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and declare that, by exempting pursuant to Item 1, Schedule 6, Group 7 (Health) of the Value-Added Tax Act 1983 supplies of goods provided in connection with the exercise of the medical and paramedical professions, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland has failed to fulfil its obligations under Article 13 A (1) (c) of the Sixth Council Directive of 17 May 1977 (77/388/EEC).

1 Translated from the Italian.