Keywords

Summary



Keywords

1. Preliminary rulings - Jurisdiction of the Court - Limits - Questions which are manifestly irrelevant and hypothetical questions in a context precluding a useful answer - Questions bearing no relation to the purpose of the main action

(Art. 234 EC)

2. Competition - Public undertakings and undertakings to which Member States grant special or exclusive rights - Undertakings entrusted with the operation of services of general economic interest - National legislation making the supply of express mail services by undertakings other than the one responsible for operating the universal service subject to payment of postal dues - Allocation of the proceeds of those dues to the undertaking with the exclusive right to operate the universal service - Not permissible - Justification - Need for that undertaking to secure the universal postal service - Proof - National procedural rules - Conditions governing their application

(EC Treaty, Arts 86 and 90 (now Arts 82 EC and 86 EC))

Summary

1. In the context of the cooperation between the Court of Justice and the national courts provided for by Article 234 EC, it is solely for the national court before which the dispute has been brought, and which must assume responsibility for the subsequent judicial decision, to determine in the light of the particular circumstances of the case both the need for a preliminary ruling in order to enable it to deliver judgment and the relevance of the questions which it submits to the Court. Consequently, where the questions submitted by the national court concern the interpretation of Community law, the Court of Justice is, in principle, bound to give a ruling.

Nevertheless, in exceptional circumstances, it may examine the conditions in which the case was referred to it by the national court, in order to determine whether it has jurisdiction. The Court may refuse to rule on a question referred for a preliminary ruling by a national court only where it is quite obvious that the interpretation of Community law that is sought bears no relation to the facts of the main action or its purpose, where the problem is hypothetical, or where the Court does not have before it the elements of fact or law necessary to enable it to give a useful answer to the questions submitted to it.

Far from preventing a national court from referring questions to the Court under Article 234 EC, the case-law as stated in Case 283/81 Cilfit gives the national court sole responsibility for determining whether the correct application of Community law is so obvious as to leave no scope for any reasonable doubt and for deciding, as a result, to refrain from referring to the Court of Justice a question concerning the interpretation of Community law which has been raised before it.

( see paras 30-31, 35 )

2. In so far as trade between Member States may be affected, Article 86 of the EC Treaty, read in conjunction with Article 90 thereof (now Articles 82 EC and 86 EC), precludes legislation of a Member State which grants a private-law undertaking the exclusive right to operate the universal postal service from making the right of any other economic operator to provide an express mail service not forming part of the universal service subject to payment of postal dues equivalent to the postage charge normally payable to the undertaking responsible for the universal service, unless it can be shown that the proceeds of such payment are necessary to enable the undertaking to operate the universal postal service in economically acceptable conditions and that the undertaking is required to pay the same dues when itself providing an express mail service not forming part of the universal service.

That may be proved in accordance with the rules of the domestic legal system of the Member State concerned, provided that those rules are not less favourable than those governing similar domestic actions and do not render virtually impossible or excessively difficult the exercise of rights conferred by Community law.

( see para 63 and operative part 1-2 )