Order — ECLI:EU:C:1997:334
Date: 1997-06-30
Language of the case: Portuguese
Court formation: Full Court
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: State aids;Competition;Freedom to provide services
Concepts: Jurisdiction of the Court of Justice
Procedure: Reference for a preliminary ruling - inadmissible
Origin: Portugal

Summary of the O r d e r 
Preliminary rulings — Admissibility — Questions not relating to specific technical points, submit­
ted without providing any exphnation of the factual and legishtive context 
(EC Treaty, Art. 177; EC Statute of the Court of Justice, Art. 20) 
In order to reach an interpretation of Com­
munity law which will be of use to the 
national court, it is essential that the national 
court define the factual and legislative con­
text of the questions it is asking or, at the 
very least, explain the factual circumstances 
on which those questions are based. 
I - 3757 
SUMMARY — CASE C-66/97 
The information provided in orders for ref­
erence not only enables the Court usefully to 
reply but also gives the Governments of the 
Member States and other interested parties 
the opportunity to submit observations pur­
suant to Article 20 of the EC Statute of the 
Court . It is the Court's duty to ensure that 
the opportunity to submit observations is 
safeguarded, bearing in mind that, by virtue 
of the abovementioned provision, only the 
orders for reference are notified to the inter­
ested parties. 
The requirement for the national court to 
define the factual and legislative context of 
the questions it is asking is less pressing 
where the questions relate to specific techni­
cal points and enable the Court to give a use­
ful reply even where the national court has 
not given an exhaustive description of the 
legal and factual situation. 
None the less, a request from a national 
court is manifestly inadmissible where the 
order for reference does not contain suffi­
cient information regarding the factual and 
legal situation in the case before it and 
merely reproduces the questions suggested 
by the defendants in the main proceedings. 
I - 3758