Keywords

Summary



Keywords

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1. Preliminary rulings ° Admissibility ° Need to furnish the Court with sufficient details of the factual and legislative context

(EC Treaty, Art. 177)

2. Freedom of movement for persons ° Freedom of establishment ° Freedom to provide services ° Treaty provisions ° Directives 78/1026 and 78/1027 concerning the training of veterinary surgeons and mutual recognition of diplomas ° Not applicable in a situation purely internal to a Member State

(EC Treaty, Arts 52 and 59; Council Directives 78/1026 and 78/1027)

3. Agriculture ° Harmonization of laws ° Directives 77/504 and 87/328 on the acceptance for breeding purposes of pure-bred breeding animals of the bovine species for the purpose of eliminating zootechnical impediments to the free movement of bovine semen ° Scope ° National rules relating to artificial insemination and access to the activity of artificial inseminator ° Excluded

(Council Directives 77/504 and 87/328)

4. State monopolies of a commercial character ° Treaty provisions ° Applicability to a monopoly of supplies of services concerning the artificial insemination of bovine animals ° Conditions ° Assessment of the facts a matter for the national court

(EC Treaty, Art. 37)

Summary

1. Information provided in the order for reference not only enables the Court to give helpful answers, but also makes it possible for the governments of the Member States and other interested parties to submit observations.

In view of the need to arrive at an interpretation of Community law which will assist the national court, it is necessary for that court to define the factual and legislative context of the questions it is asking or, at the very least, explain the factual premisses on which those questions are based.

2. Articles 52 and 59 of the Treaty, Directive 78/1026 concerning the mutual recognition of diplomas, certificates and other evidence of formal qualifications in veterinary medicine, including measures to facilitate the effective exercise of the right of establishment and freedom to provide services, and Directive 78/1027 concerning the coordination of provisions laid down by law, regulation or administrative action in respect of the activities of veterinary surgeons do not apply to situations which are purely internal to a Member State such as those of nationals of a Member State wishing to carry out the activity of artificial insemination within that State without having previously trained for or carried out that activity in another Member State.

3. Directive 77/504 on pure-bred breeding animals of the bovine species and Directive 87/328 on the acceptance for breeding purposes of pure-bred breeding animals of the bovine species do not preclude national legislation which gives insemination centres a territorial monopoly to practise artificial insemination while making practice as an inseminator conditional upon the issue of a licence as head of an insemination centre or as an inseminator and the issue of such a licence conditional upon the production of a certificate from a director of an authorized artificial-insemination centre. Such rules do not fall within the ambit of the said directives, which seek to harmonize the conditions governing the acceptance for breeding purposes of animals of the bovine species and of their semen with a view to eliminating zootechnical impediments to the free movement of bovine semen.

4. Article 37 of the Treaty does not apply to a monopoly in the provision of services, even if such a monopoly prohibits artificial insemination of breeding animals of the bovine species by persons, even those duly qualified and with the relevant capacity, other than the staff of the artificial-insemination centres possessing the monopoly, provided that it does not contravene the principle of the free movement of goods by discriminating against imported products to the advantage of products of domestic origin. There is no such discrimination where any individual breeder is free to request the insemination centre for his area to supply him with semen from a production centre of his choice, whether established in the Member State concerned or abroad. The question whether the operation of approved centres does in practice lead to discrimination against imported bovine semen is a matter for the national court to determine in the light of Article 30 of the Treaty and taking into account the relevant facts.