Vitālijs Drozdovs v Baltikums AAS.
Date: 2013-10-24
28. It should be noted that the preambles to the First and Second Directives show that their aim is, first, to ensure the free movement of vehicles normally based in European Union territory and of persons travelling in those vehicles and, second, to guarantee that the victims of accidents caused by those vehicles receive comparable treatment irrespective of where in the European Union the accident occurred (Case C‑300/10 Marques Almeida  [2012] ECR I‑0000, paragraph 26 and the case‑law cited).
29. The First Directive, as amplified and supplemented by the Second and Third Directives, thus requires the Member States to ensure that civil liability in respect of the use of vehicles normally based in their territory is covered by insurance, and specifies, inter alia, the types of damage and the third-party victims to be covered by that insurance ( Marques Almeida , paragraph 27 and the case‑law cited).
30. It should however be noted that the obligation to provide insurance cover against civil liability for damage caused to third parties by motor vehicles is distinct from the extent of the compensation to be afforded to them on the basis of the civil liability of the insured person. Whereas the former is defined and guaranteed by European Union legislation, the latter is, essentially, governed by national law ( Marques Almeida , paragraph 28 and the case‑law cited).
32. Consequently, and regard being had inter alia to Article 1(2) of the First Directive, as European Union law currently stands, in relation to their civil liability insurance schemes, in principle the Member States remain free to determine, in particular, which damage caused by motor vehicles is to be compensated, the extent of such compensation and the persons who are entitled to it.
33. However, the Court of Justice has stated that the Member States must exercise their powers in that field in compliance with European Union law and that national provisions which govern compensation for road traffic accidents may not deprive the First, Second and Third Directives of their effectiveness ( Marques Almeida , paragraph 31 and the case‑law cited).
34. In so far as concerns the cover by compulsory insurance of damage caused by motor vehicles which must be compensated under national civil liability law, the second sentence of Article 3(1) of the First Directive indeed left it, as submitted by the German Government, to the Member States to determine the damage covered and the terms and conditions of compulsory insurance (see, to that effect, Case C‑129/94 Ruiz Bernáldez  [1996] ECR I‑1829, paragraph 15).
35. However, it is in order to reduce the disparities which continued to exist between the laws of the Member States with respect to the extent of the obligation of insurance cover that Article 1 of the Second Directive required compulsory cover against civil liability, for both damage to property and personal injuries, up to specified sums. Article 1 of the Third Directive extended that obligation to cover personal injuries to passengers other than the driver ( Ruiz Bernáldez , paragraph 16).
36. Thus, the Member States are required to ensure that the civil liability resulting from the use of motor vehicles arising under their domestic law is covered by insurance which complies with the provisions of the First, Second and Third Directives ( Marques Almeida , paragraph 30 and the case‑law cited).
37. Consequently, the freedom enjoyed by the Member States to determine the damage covered and the terms and conditions of compulsory insurance has been restricted by the Second and Third Directives, in that they rendered the cover of certain types of damage mandatory, specifying fixed minimum amounts of cover. Personal injuries, as set out in Article 1(1) of the Second Directive, feature among the types of damage in respect of which cover is mandatory.
38. As the Advocate General has stated in points 68 to 73 of his Opinion, and as has been held by the EFTA Court in its judgment of 20 June 2008 in Case E‑8/07 Celina Nguyen  v The Norwegian State  ( EFTA Court Report , p. 224, paragraphs 26 and 27), it must be considered that, in the light of the different language versions of Article 1(1) of the Second Directive, Article 1(1) of the Third Directive and the protective aim of the three directives referred to above, the notion of ‘personal injuries’ covers any type of damage, in so far as compensation for such damage is provided for, as part of the civil liability of the insured, under the national law applicable in the dispute, resulting from an injury to physical integrity, which includes both physical and psychological suffering.
39. According to settled case‑law, provisions of European Union law must be interpreted and applied uniformly in the light of the versions existing in all the languages of the European Union. Where there is a divergence between the various language versions of a European Union text, the provision in question must thus be interpreted by reference to the general scheme and the purpose of the rules of which it forms part (see, inter alia, Case C‑280/04 Jyske Finans  [2005] ECR I‑10683, paragraph 31 and the case‑law cited).
41. Consequently, non‑material damage, compensation for which is provided for as part of the civil liability of the insured person, under the national law applicable in the dispute, features among the types of damage in respect of which compensation must be provided in accordance with the First, Second and Third Directives.