European Union – Value added tax. Article 325(1) and (2) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union required the national court, in criminal proceedings for infringements relating to VAT, to disapply national provisions on limitation, forming part of national substantive law, which prevented the application of effective and deterrent criminal penalties in a significant number of cases of serious fraud affecting the financial interests of the Union, or which laid down shorter limitation periods for cases of serious fraud affecting those interests than for those affecting the financial interests of the member state concerned. The Court of Justice of the European Union so held in a preliminary ruling in criminal proceedings against two individuals for infringements relating to VAT.