Győrgy Katz v István Roland Sós.
Date: 2008-10-09
29. It should be noted, that, in accordance with Article 46(b) EU, the provisions of the EC Treaty concerning the powers of the Court of Justice and the exercise of those powers, including the provisions of Article 234 EC, apply to the provisions of Title VI of the EU Treaty under the conditions laid down by Article 35 EU. It follows that the system under Article 234 EC applies to the Court’s jurisdiction to give preliminary rulings under Article 35 EU, subject to the conditions laid down by the latter article (see, inter alia, Case C-296/08 PPU Santesteban Goicoechea , [2008] ECR I-0000, paragraph 36, and the case-law cited).
30. Like Article 234 EC, Article 35 EU makes reference to the Court of Justice for a preliminary ruling subject to the condition that the national court ‘considers that a decision on the question is necessary to enable it to give judgment’, meaning that the case-law of the Court of Justice on the admissibility of references under Article 234 EC is, in principle, transposable to references for a preliminary ruling submitted to the Court of Justice under Article 35 EU (see, inter alia, Case C-467/05 Dell’Orto  [2007] ECR I-5557, paragraph 39, and the case-law cited).
31. It follows that the presumption that questions referred by national courts for a preliminary ruling are relevant may be rebutted only in exceptional cases, where it is quite obvious that the interpretation which is sought of the provisions of European Union law referred to in the questions bears no relation to the actual facts of the main action or to its purpose or where the problem is hypothetical or the Court does not have before it the factual or legal material necessary to give a useful answer to the questions submitted to it. Save for such cases, the Court is, in principle, bound to give a preliminary ruling on questions concerning the interpretation of the acts referred to in Article 35(1) EU ( Dell’Orto , paragraph 40, and the case-law cited).
34. Moreover, it is not for the Court, in the context of a reference for a preliminary ruling, to give a ruling on the interpretation of provisions of national law or to decide whether the interpretation given by the national court of those provisions is correct (see, inter alia, with regard to Article 234 EC, Case C-244/06 Dynamic Medien [2008] ECR I-0000, paragraph 19).
37. Under Article 35 EU, it is for the national court, not the parties to the main proceedings, to bring a matter before the Court of Justice. The right to determine the questions to be put to the Court thus devolves on the national court alone and the parties may not change their tenor (see Santesteban Goicoechea , paragraph 46).
42. According to recital 4 in the preamble to the Framework Decision the victims of crime should be afforded a high level of protection.
46. It must therefore be concluded that the Framework Decision, while requiring Member States, first, to ensure that victims enjoy a high level of protection and have a real and appropriate role in their criminal legal system and, second, to recognise victims’ rights and legitimate interests and ensure that they can be heard and supply evidence, leaves to the national authorities a large measure of discretion with regard to the specific means by which they implement those objectives.
47. However, in order not to deprive the first paragraph of Article 3 of the Framework Decision of much of its practical effect or to infringe the obligations stated in Article 2(1) of the Framework Decision, those provisions imply, in any event, that the victim is to be able to give testimony in the course of the criminal proceedings which can be taken into account as evidence.
48. It should be added that the Framework Decision must be interpreted in such a way that fundamental rights, including in particular the right to a fair trial as set out in Article 6 of the ECHR, are respected (see, in particular, Case C-105/03 Pupino  [2005] ECR I‑5285, paragraph 59).
49. It is therefore for the referring court to ensure in particular that the way in which the evidence is taken in the criminal proceedings, viewed as whole, does not prejudice the fairness of the proceedings for the purposes of Article 6 of the ECHR, as interpreted by the European Court of Human Rights (see, inter alia, Case C-276/01 Steffensen  [2003] ECR I-3735, paragraph 76, and Pupino , paragraph 60).