31Thirdly, the Member States’ residual power to retain national exclusions from the right to deduct VAT, pursuant to the second paragraph of Article 176 of the VAT Directive, is not, however, absolute. The Court has thus held that the standstill clause is not intended to allow a new Member State to amend its domestic legislation on its accession to the European Union, the effect of which would be to extend the scope of existing exclusions, in a way which diverts that legislation from the objectives of the VAT directive, which would be contrary to the very spirit of that clause (see, to that effect, judgment of 22 December 2008, Magoora, C‑414/07, EU:C:2008:766, paragraphs 37 and 39).
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