26Next, as regards the Court’s jurisdiction in this case to interpret Directive 77/799, the fact that the requesting Member State is not bound to submit a request for assistance to another Member State does not mean that the rules relating to the request for information and the use of the information obtained by that Member State can be considered to be outside the scope of European Union law. Where a Member State decides to make use of that assistance, it must comply with the rules laid down in Directive 77/799. It is clear, in particular from the fifth recital in the preamble to that directive, that Member States must respect certain obligations in the context of mutual assistance.
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