Op-Ed: “Reframing the Reform to Transfer Preliminary Rulings to the General Court with the Meaning of Judicial Cooperation: a Look into Recent VAT Preliminary Rulings” by Ricardo García Antón

The request to transfer to the General Court jurisdiction to hear and adjudicate questions for preliminary rulings in specific areas under Article 267 TFEU (Value Added Tax – ‘VAT’, excises and Customs, compensation and assistance to passengers, and the scheme for greenhouse gas emission allowance trading) leads the path toward an EU-decentralised judicial power. Allocating the competence to adjudicate preliminary rulings to the General Court, already possible after the Treaty of Nice, has counted on the support of academic writing (see for example T. Tridimas, ‘Knocking on Heaven’s Door: fragmentation, efficiency and defiance in the preliminary reference procedure’).

The reform