European Union – Value added tax. European Union law precluded a refusal by a member state to refund the VAT paid on the importation of goods to a taxable person who was not established on its territory in circumstances where, at the time of importation, the performance of the contract in connection with which the taxable person had purchased and imported those goods had been suspended, the transaction for which they had been intended to be used had in the end not been carried out, and the taxable person had not been provided proof of their subsequent movements. The Court of Justice of the European Union so held in a preliminary ruling in proceedings between the applicant German company and the French tax authority relating to the refund of VAT paid by the applicant in Romania.