42

In those circumstances the Rechtbank van eerste aanleg te Brussel decided to stay the proceedings and to refer the following questions to the Court of Justice for a preliminary ruling, worded in essentially similar terms in the five cases before it: ‘1. Is a national rule, such as that embodied in the [Electricity Decree], as implemented by the Decision [of 5 March 2004], as amended by the Decision [of 25 February 2005] and by [the Decision of 8 July 2005] [the reference to the Decision of 8 July 2005 is not included in the question referred in Case C‑204/12], where: — an obligation is imposed on the suppliers of electricity to final customers connected to the distribution network or the transmission network, to surrender a certain number of green certificates annually to the Regulatory Authority (Article 23 of the [Electricity Decree]); — an administrative fine is imposed by the [VREG] on the suppliers of electricity to final customers connected to the distribution network or the transmission network when the supplier has not surrendered a sufficient number of green certificates to fulfil a quota obligation which has been imposed in respect of green certificates (Article 37(2) of the [Electricity Decree]); — it is expressly provided that guarantees of origin from other countries may be surrendered under certain conditions in order to fulfil the quota obligation (Article 15c(2) of the Decision [of 5 March 2004 as amended by the Decision of 8 July 2005]) [(this indent is not included in the question referred in Case C‑204/12)]; — the [VREG] cannot or will not take into account any guarantees of origin originating from Norway [and the Netherlands (remark specific to the question referred in Case C‑204/12)] [and Denmark (remark specific to the question referred in Case C‑205/12)] [and Denmark/Sweden (remark specific to the question referred in Case C‑206/12)], and that being in the absence of implementing measures on the part of the Flemish Government, which has acknowledged the equality or equivalence of those certificates (Article 25 of the [Electricity Decree] and [(i) in respect of Case C‑204/12] Article 15(1) of the Decision [of 5 March 2004, as amended by the Decision of 25 February 2005], [(ii) in respect of Cases C‑205/12 to C‑208/12], Article 15c(2) of the Decision [of 5 March 2004, as amended by the Decision of 8 July 2005]), without that equality or equivalence being investigated by [the VREG] in concrete terms; — in fact, during the whole time that the [Electricity Decree] was in force, only certificates for the production of green energy generated in the Flemish Region were taken into account when ascertaining whether the quota obligation had been fulfilled, whereas for the suppliers of electricity to final customers connected to the distribution network or transmission network there was no possibility whatsoever of demonstrating that the guarantees of origin from other Member States of the European Union [this specific point is not in the question referred in Case C‑204/12], met the condition of the existence of equal or equivalent guarantees regarding the granting of such certificates; compatible with Article 34 TFEU and Article 11 of the EEA Agreement and/or Article 36 TFEU and Article 13 of the EEA Agreement [(in Cases C‑207/12 and C‑208/12 the question referred concerns only Articles 11 and 13 of the EEA Agreement)]? 2. Is a national rule as referred to in question 1 above compatible with Article 5 of Directive [2001/77] [(in Cases C‑207/12 and C‑208/12 the question is asked only “in so far as that provision is relevant for the EEA”)]? 3. Is a national rule as referred to in question 1 above compatible with the principle of equal treatment and the prohibition of discrimination as embodied inter alia in Article 18 TFEU [(Cases C‑204/12 to C‑206/12)], Article 4 of the EEA Agreement [(Cases C‑207/12 and C‑208/12)] and Article 3 of Directive [2003/54] [(in Cases C‑207/12 and C‑208/12 the question referred concerns Article 3 only “in so far as that provision is relevant for the EEA”)]?’