Opinion of the Advocate General — ECLI:EU:C:2011:464
Date: 2011-07-07
Language of the case: Spanish
Subject matter: Agriculture and Fisheries
Procedure: Reference for a preliminary ruling - inadmissible
Origin: Spain

Summary of the Judgment Preliminary rulings – Jurisdiction of the Court – Limits – General or hypothetical questions – Determination by the Court whether it has jurisdiction – Question referred for a preliminary ruling of a hypothetical nature – Inadmissibility (Art. 267 TFEU; Council Regulation No 1782/2003, Art. 42) The procedure provided for by Article 267 TFEU is an instrument for cooperation between the Court of Justice and the national courts, by means of which the Court provides the national courts with the points of interpretation of Union law which they need in order to decide the disputes before them. In the context of that cooperation, questions relating to Union law enjoy a presumption of relevance. The Court may thus refuse to rule on a question referred by a national court only where it is quite obvious that the interpretation of Union law sought bears no relation to the actual facts of the main action or its purpose, where the problem is hypothetical, or where the Court does not have before it the factual or legal material necessary to give a useful answer to the questions submitted to it. The Court’s function in preliminary rulings is to assist in the administration of justice in the Member States and not to deliver advisory opinions on general or hypothetical questions. A reference for a preliminary ruling concerning the interpretation of Article 42(3) of Regulation No 1782/2003 establishing common rules for direct support schemes under the common agricultural policy and establishing certain support schemes for farmers, brought in the context of an action for annulment of a national legislative measure, the purpose of which is to establish the basic national regulations applicable to certain aid schemes set up by that regulation, when that legislative measure has been repealed and the referring court has not provided the Court with information explaining how the reference has a real and specific bearing on the dispute in the main proceedings, must be declared inadmissible because the question referred is hypothetical. (see paras 16-18, 23, 25)