L 369/58 Official Journal of the European Union 16.12.2004 (Acts whose publication is not obligatory) COUNCIL COUNCIL DECISION of 7 December 2004 authorising the French Republic and the Italian Republic to apply a measure derogating from Article 3(1) of the Sixth Council Directive (77/388/EEC) on the harmonisation of the laws of the Member States relating to turnover taxes (2004/853[EC) THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, Having regard to the Sixth Council Directive (77/388/EEC) of 17 May 1977 on the harmonisation of the laws of the Member States relating to turnover taxes — Common system of value added tax: uniform basis of assessment(!), and in particular Article 27 thereof, Having regard to the proposal from the Commission, Whereas: Under Atticle 27 of Directive 77/388/EEC, the Council, acting unanimously on a proposal from the Commission, may authorise any Member State to introduce special measures for derogation from the provisions of the Directive, in order to simplify the procedure for charging the tax or to prevent certain types of tax evasion or avoidance. In a request submitted to the Commission and registered by the Commission’s Secretariat-General on 24 March 2004, the French and the Italian Governments sought authorisation to derogate from Article 3 of Directive 77/388|EEC. (") OJ L 145, 13.6.1977, p. 1. Directive as last amended by Directive 2004/66/EC (O] L 168, 1.5.2004, p. 35). () In accordance with Article 27(2) of Directive 77/388[EEC, the Commission informed the other Member States by letter of 1 June 2004 of the request made by the French and the Italian Governments and by letter of 3 June 2004 the Commission notified the French Republic and the Italian Republic that it had all the information it considered necessary for appraisal of the request. Between France and Italy there are two tunnels: Mont Blanc (Monte Bianco) and Fréjus. The border between the two States is inside the tunnel but it would be impractical to arrange collection of tolls inside. The first indent of Article 3(1) of Directive 77/388/EEC stipulates that the ‘... “territory of a Member State” shall mean the territory of the country .... Under the current rules, therefore, the taxable amount of the tolls should be related to the length of the tunnel which belongs to each State. Since it would be expensive and disruptive to have a toll booth at each end of the tunnel for each Member State to collect their share of the toll, tolls are collected as a whole at the entrance of the tunnel. Each journey through the tunnel should be invoiced with two tolls and two different VAT rates: one for the French territory and one for the Italian territory. Moreover the taxable amount and the VAT should afterwards be shared between the two Member States. Thus the VAT is an additional complicating factor in an already complex mechanism of financial compensation resulting from the sharing of the management costs for the tunnel. The purpose of the derogation requested by France and Italy is to seek authorisation to derogate from Article 3 of Directive 77[/388/EEC in relation to the tunnel of Mont Blanc (Monte Bianco) and tunnel of Fréjus.