What does this imply for practical purposes?
Van Binsbergen (CJEU Case C-33/74)
Van Binsbergen had a legal dispute before the Dutch court “Centrale Raad van Beroep”
with the Dutch Board of the Trade Association of the Engineering Industry. In this dispute
he wanted to be represented by a legal representative who originally lived in the
Netherlands but who during the course of the procedure moved to Belgium. The issue at
stake was whether this representative could continue his services to Van Binsbergen, since
the Dutch law then contained a provision stating that only persons established in the
Netherlands may act as legal representatives before the Centrale Raad van Beroep. The
CJEU decided:
“...that the national law of a Member State cannot, by imposing a requirement as to
habitual residence within that state, deny persons established in another Member State the
right to provide services, where the provision of services is not subject to any special
condition under the national law applicable.”
It is permissible to travel to other Member States in order to perform services,
and it is also allowed to travel in order to receive services.
Luisi and Carbone (CJEU Cases C-286/82 and C-26/83)
Graziana Luisi and Giuseppe Carbone were fined by the Italian Ministry for the Treasury
for taking more than the maximum allowed amount of LIT 500,000 abroad for the purposes
of tourism, business, education and medical treatment. They contested the validity of the
provisions of Italian law on which the fines were based, because the provisions would
violate community law.
According to the CJEU, such transfers of money would be transfers in connection with
the provision of services and therefore allowed.10.5.5 Free Movement of Capital
If goods and services are to be distributed freely within the EU, it should also be
possible to move capital from one Member State to another because if the goods and
the services cannot be paid for, the freedom to move them across borders loses
much of its value.
The free movement of capital is the most controversial among the four freedoms.
In the original Treaty of Rome, which foresaw only a customs union to begin with,
there was only an obligation to move towards integration of the capital market. Of
course, some sort of further economic cooperation is necessary to create a single
capital market in which there can be free movement of capital.
The Maastricht Treaty of 1992 finally introduced the development of a European
Monetary Union, which led to the introduction of the single currency, the euro, in
- The Maastricht Treaty therefore also included the first real article on free
movement of capital, now firmly enshrined in the TFEU. Article 63 TFEU declares
that - Within the framework of the provisions set out in this chapter, all restrictions on the
movement of capital between Member States and between Member States and third
countries shall be prohibited.
226 J. Hage