Judgment — ECLI:EU:C:2011:868
Date: 2011-12-21
Language of the case: Italian
Court formation: Third Chamber
Subject matter: Principles, objectives and tasks of the Treaties
Procedure: Reference for a preliminary ruling - inadmissible
Origin: Italy

Summary of the Judgment Preliminary rulings – Jurisdiction of the Court – Limits – Purely internal situations (Art. 267 TFEU) An interpretation, by the Court, of provisions of Union law in purely internal situations is justified on the ground that they have been made applicable by national law directly and unconditionally, in order to ensure that internal situations and situations governed by Union law are treated in the same way. However, when a provision of national law makes a generalised renvoi to ‘principles derived from the Community legal order’ and not specifically to the provisions of EU law referred to by the questions raised, it cannot be considered that those provisions have been, as such, made applicable directly by the national law at issue. Similarly, it cannot be considered, in those circumstances, that the renvoi to Union law as a means of regulating purely internal situations is unconditional in such a way that the provisions referred to by those questions are applicable without limitation to the situation at issue in the main proceedings. The Court does not, therefore, have jurisdiction to respond to the questions raised by a national court concerning the interpretation of specific provisions of Union law when it cannot be inferred that, by referring to principles deriving from Union law, the national legislature intended to make a renvoi to the content of those specific provisions so that internal situations and situations falling within Union law might be treated in the same way. (see paras 19, 25-27, 29-30, operative part)