Opinion of the Advocate General — ECLI:EU:C:1999:111
Date: 1999-03-02
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: Accession;Right of establishment;Free movement of workers
Procedure: Reference for a preliminary ruling
Origin: Austria

Summary of the Judgment 
1. Preliminary rulings — Jurisdiction of the Court — Limits — Questions which are 
manifestly irrelevant and hypothetical questions in a context precluding a useful answer 
(EC Treaty, Art. 177 (now Art. 234 EC)) 
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SUMMARY — CASE C-355/97 
2. Accession of new Member States — Austria — Finland — Sweden — Free movement 
of persons, services and capital — Transitional measures concerning Austria — 
Existing legislation on secondary residences — 'Existing legislation' 
(1994 Act of Accession, Art. 70) 
1. The presumption of relevance attach­
ing to questions referred by the 
national courts for a preliminary ruling 
may be rebutted only in exceptional 
cases, where it is quite obvious that the 
interpretation of Community law 
sought bears no relation to the actual 
facts of the main action or to its 
purpose, or where the problem is 
hypothetical and the Court does not 
have before it the factual or legal 
material necessary to give a useful 
answer to the questions submitted. 
Save for such cases, the Court is, in 
principle, required to give a ruling on 
questions concerning the interpretation 
of Community law. 
2. The concept of existing legislation, 
within the meaning of Article 70 of 
the 1994 Act of Accession, under 
which the Republic of Austria may 
maintain its existing legislation regard­
ing secondary residences for five years 
from the date of accession, covers 
provisions adopted after the date of 
accession which are in substance iden­
tical to the legislation previously in 
force or limited to reducing or elim­
inating an obstacle to the exercise of 
Community rights and freedoms in the 
earlier legislation. 
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