Autorità per le Garanzie nelle Comunicazioni v Istituto Nazionale di Statistica - ISTAT and Others.
Date: 2016-07-28
30


However, in the procedure under Article 267 TFEU, it is not for the Court to rule on the applicability of provisions of national law or to establish the facts relevant to the decision in the main proceedings. On the contrary, the Court must take into account the factual and legal context of the question referred for a preliminary ruling as defined by the order for reference (see, inter alia, to that effect, judgments of 13 November 2003, in Neri, C‑153/02, EU:C:2003:614, paragraphs 34 and 35, and 30 June 2005, in Tod’s and Tod’s France, C‑28/04, EU:C:2005:418, paragraph 14).
31


Accordingly, the Court cannot substitute its judgment for that of the referring court as to whether the latter two provisions still applied to AGCOM when the main proceedings were brought before the referring court (see, to that effect, judgment of 14 September 1999, in Gruber, C‑249/97, EU:C:1999:405, paragraph 19) and must take it as established that that is indeed the case. Further, the Court must answer the question referred having regard solely to the provisions set out by the referring court.
32


As regards, first, Article 3 of the Framework Directive, it must be stated that the aim of that provision, in its initial version, was, essentially, pursuant to recital 11 of that directive, to guarantee the independence and the impartiality of NRAs by ensuring that regulation and operation are functionally separate (judgment of 6 March 2008, in Comisión del Mercado de las Telecomunicaciones, C‑82/07, EU:C:2008:143, paragraph 13).
34


As is apparent from recital 13 of Directive 2009/140, the intention of the EU legislature was, by means of that directive, to strengthen the independence of NRAs in order to ensure a more effective application of the regulatory framework and to increase their authority and the predictability of their decisions. Accordingly, Article 3(3) of the Framework Directive now provides expressly that Member States are to ensure that NRAs exercise their powers impartially, transparently and in a timely manner and that they have the required financial and human resources to carry out the tasks assigned to them.
45


As regards, second, Article 12 of the Authorisation Directive, it must be recalled that the administrative charges which Member States may impose, under that article, on undertakings providing a service or a network under the general authorisation or to which a right of use has been granted, in order to finance NRA activities, must be exclusively intended to cover the overall administrative costs relating to the activities mentioned in Article 12(1)(a) of that directive. Those charges cannot therefore be intended to cover expenditure relating to tasks other than those listed in that provision, and in particular not administrative costs of any kind incurred by the NRA (see, to that effect, judgment of 18 July 2013, in Vodafone Omnitel and Others, C‑228/12 to C‑232/12 and C‑254/12 to C‑258/12, EU:C:2013:495, paragraphs 38 to 40 and 42).
46


Further, it is apparent from Article 12(2) of the Authorisation Directive, read in the light of recital 30 thereof, that those charges must cover the actual administrative costs relating to the activities listed in Article 12(1)(a) and must be in balance with those costs. Accordingly, the total sum of the income obtained from the charge concerned cannot exceed the total of the costs relating to those activities (see, to that effect, judgment of 18 July 2013, in Vodafone Omnitel and Others, C‑228/12 to C‑232/12 and C‑254/12 to C‑258/12, EU:C:2013:495, paragraphs 41 and 42).