6. 8. 97 Official Journal of the European Communities No L 214/37 COUNCIL COUNCIL DECISION of 24 July 1997 authorizing Ireland to apply a measure derogating from Article 21 of the Sixth Directive (77/388/EEC) on the harmonization of the laws of the Member States relating to turnover taxes (97/510/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 harmonization 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 the terms of Article 27 (1) of Directive 77/388/EEC, the Council, acting unanimously on a proposal from the Commission, may authorize any Member State to introduce special measures for deroga- tion from the provisions of that Directive in order to simplify the procedure for charging the tax or to prevent certain types of tax evasion or avoidance; Whereas, by registered letter to the Commission dated 5 February 1997, Ireland requested authorization to intro- duce a measure derogating from Article 21 (1) of Directive 77/388/EEC; Whereas, in accordance with Article 27 (3) of Directive 77/388/EEC, the other Member States were informed on 4 March 1997 of the request made by Ireland; (') OJ No L 145, 13. 6. 1977, p. 1. Directive as last amended by Directive 96/95/EC, O] No L 338, 28. 12. 1996, p. 89. Whereas Ireland operates a specific system of applying VAT to property based, on the one hand, on the option under Article 5 (3) of Directive 77/388/EEC to treat the supply of certain interests (i.c. a lease of 10 years or more) in immovable property as a supply of goods and, on the other hand, on a derogation authorized under Article 27 (5) to treat the granting of such an interest by a lessor as a disposal of the lessor’s entire interest in the property; Whereas Community law gives Member States a great deal of discretion in determining the VAT treatment to be applied to immovable goods, and its transposition has led to considerable variations in the national laws applied in this field; Whereas avoidance schemes have been set up, based on the use of surrender, including by way of abandonment of a leasehold interest or assignment of a leasehold interest, which result in the avoidance of the VAT where the ulti- mate acquirer of the property is not entitled to a full deduction of VAT; Whereas it is also necessary to extend the derogation to the surrender or assignment of a leasehold interest to a taxable person having full right of deduction, as the surrender or the assignment of a leasehold interest will often arise due to financial difficulties of the lessee; Whereas the measure envisaged is a derogation from Article 21 (1) (a) of Directive 77/388/EEC, whereby the person liable for the tax is the taxable person who carries out the taxable transaction;