European Union – Taxation. The Court of Justice of the European Union gave a preliminary ruling, deciding, among other things, that arts 4(2) and 21(5) of Council Directive (EC) 2003/96 should be interpreted as not precluding a national rule, such as the one at issue in the main proceedings, which provided for the levying of a tax on the thermal power of nuclear reactors, in so far as such a tax did not come within the scope of that directive.