Judgment — ECLI:EU:C:2018:32
Date: 2018-01-24
Language of the case: Italian
Court formation: Eighth Chamber
Subject matter: Right of establishment;Freedom to provide services;Free movement of workers
Procedure: Reference for a preliminary ruling
Origin: Italy

Summary — Judgment of the Court (Eighth Chamber), 24 January 2018 1. Freedom of movement for persons — Freedom of establishment — Freedom to provide services — Doctors — Obtaining specialist qualifications — Obligation to remunerate periods of training — Scope — Any period of full-time or part-time specialist medical training begun in 1982 and continued after 1 January 1983 — Included (Council Directives 75/362, Arts 5 and 7, 75/363, Arts 2(1)(c) and 3(1) and (2) and Annex, and 82/76) 2. Freedom of movement for persons — Freedom of establishment — Freedom to provide services — Doctors — Obtaining specialist qualifications — Obligation to remunerate periods of training — No national transposition measures — Obligations of national courts — Obligation to make good damage caused to individuals — Reparation of the harm by the retroactive application in full of the measures implementing the directive (Council Directives 75/363, Arts 2(1)(c) and 3(1) and (2) and Annex, and 82/76) 3. Acts of the institutions — Directives — Implementation by Member States — Obligations of Member States during the period of transposition — Obligation not to adopt measures that could compromise the attainment of the result prescribed by the Directive — Obligation on the national courts, from the date upon which a directive has entered into force, as far as possible to interpret domestic law in a manner which will not compromise attainment of the objective pursued 4. Freedom of movement for persons — Freedom of establishment — Freedom to provide services — Doctors — Obtaining specialist qualifications — Obligation to remunerate periods of training — Scope — Training periods after the expiry of the transposition period of Directive 82/76 (Council Directives 75/363, Arts 2(1)(c) and 3(1) and (2) and Annex, and 82/76] 1. Article 2(1)(c), Article 3(1) and (2) and the Annex to Council Directive 75/363/EEC of 16 June 1975 concerning the coordination of provisions laid down by law, regulation or administrative action in respect of activities of doctors, as amended by Council Directive 82/76/EEC of 26 January 1982, must be interpreted as meaning that any period of full-time or part-time specialist medical training begun in 1982 and continued up to 1990 must be subject to appropriate remuneration, within the meaning of that Annex, provided that that training concerns a medical speciality common to all the Member States or to two or more of them and is referred to in Articles 5 or 7 of Council Directive 75/362/EEC of 16 June 1975 concerning the mutual recognition of diplomas, certificates and other evidence of formal qualifications in medicine, including measures to facilitate the effective exercise of the right of establishment and freedom to provide services. In that regard, it should be noted that that obligation, which was not provided for initially by Directive 75/363, was introduced by Directive 82/76, entered into force on 29 January 1982 and the Member States, in accordance with Article 16 thereof, were required to comply with it by 31 December 1982 at the latest. (see paras 30, 38, operative part 1) 2. Article 2(1)(c), Article 3(1) and (2) and the Annex to Directive 75/363, as amended by Directive 82/76, must be interpreted as meaning that the existence of the obligation, for a Member State, to provide appropriate remuneration, within the meaning of that Annex, for any period of full-time or part-time specialist medical training begun in 1982 and continued up to 1990, does not depend on the adoption, by that Member State, of measures transposing Directive 82/76. The national court is required, when it applies provisions of national law adopted either before or after a directive, to interpret them as far as possible in the light of the wording and the purpose of those directives. Where, owing to the absence of national measures transposing Directive 82/76, the result prescribed by that directive cannot be achieved by interpretation, by taking account of the entirety of domestic law and applying the methods of interpretation recognised by it, EU law requires the Member State concerned to make good damage caused to individuals through failure to transpose that directive. It is for the referring court to determine whether all the conditions laid down in that regard by the case-law of the Court of Justice are met for the Member State to have incurred liability under EU law. In that regard, retroactive application in full of the measures implementing Directive 82/76 will enable the harmful consequences of its belated transposition to be remedied, provided that the directive was properly transposed. However, it is for the national court to ensure that reparation of the loss or damage sustained by the beneficiaries is adequate. Retroactive and proper application in full of the measures implementing Directive 82/76 will suffice for that purpose unless the beneficiaries establish the existence of complementary loss sustained on account of the fact that they were unable to benefit at the appropriate time from the financial advantages guaranteed by that directive with the result that such loss must also be made good (see, to that effect, judgments of 25 February 1999, Carbonari and Others, C‑131/97, EU:C:1999:98, paragraph 53, and of 3 October 2000, Gozza and Others, C‑371/97, EU:C:2000:526, paragraph 39). (see paras 50, 51, operative part 2) 3. See the text of the decision. (see paras 53, 55) 4. Article 2(1)(c), Article 3(1) and (2) and the Annex to Directive 75/363, as amended by Directive 82/76, must be interpreted as meaning that appropriate remuneration, within the meaning of that Annex, for any period of full-time or part-time specialist medical training begun in 1982 and continued up to 1990 must be paid for the period of that training from 1 January 1983 and until the end of that training. (see para. 57, operative part 3)