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In those circumstances, the Špecializovaný trestný súd (Special Criminal Court, Slovakia), taking the view that an interpretation of EU law is necessary in the main proceedings, decided to stay the proceedings and to refer the following questions to the Court of Justice for a preliminary ruling: ‘1. Is Directive 2012/29/EU … establishing minimum standards on the rights, support and protection of victims of crime (principally the right of the injured party to participate actively in criminal proceedings and the right to secure compensation for damage in criminal proceedings) applicable, as regards rights which, by their nature, are not enjoyed solely by a natural person, as a sentient being, also to legal persons and the State, or State authorities, where the provisions of national law confer on them the status of injured party in criminal proceedings? 2. Are legislation and decision-making practices, such that the State may not claim compensation in criminal proceedings for the damage caused to it by fraudulent conduct on the part of an accused person resulting in the misappropriation of funds from the budget of the European Union, or may not appeal, under Article 256(3) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, against the order by which the court decides not to admit it, or not to admit the authority representing it, to the main proceedings to seek compensation for the damage as an injured party, and it does not have any other type of procedure available to it by which it may assert its right as against the accused, which means that it is also not possible to guarantee its right to compensation for damage against the property and property rights of the accused under Article 50 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, thus rendering that right de facto unenforceable, compatible with Articles 17 and 47 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights …, Article 325 [TFEU] and Article 38(1)(h) of … Regulation No 1260/1999 …, read in conjunction with … Regulation No 1681/94 …? 3. Is the concept of ‘the same undertaking’ referred to in Article 2 of Regulation … No 994/98 …, read in conjunction with Article 2(2) of … Regulation … No 69/2001 …, to be interpreted only formally as meaning that it is necessary and sufficient to establish whether the companies concerned have separate legal personality under national law, such that it is possible to grant to each of those companies State aid of up to EUR 100000, or is the decisive criterion the actual mode of operation and management of those companies, held by the same persons and inter-related, in the manner of a system of branches managed by a central company, even though each has its own legal personality under national law, so that they must be deemed to form ‘the same undertaking’ and, as a single entity, may receive State aid of up to EUR 100000 only once? 4. For the purposes of the [PIF Convention or Directive 2017/1371], does the term ‘damage’ mean only that part of the funds wrongly obtained which is directly related to the fraudulent conduct, or also the costs actually incurred and duly proven and the use of the assistance, if the evidence shows that their expenditure was necessary to conceal the fraudulent conduct, delay the detection of the fraudulent conduct and obtain the full amount of the State aid granted?’