Stichting Zuid-Hollandse Milieufederatie v College voor de toelating van bestrijdingsmiddelen.
Date: 2005-11-10
29. In that regard, it must be borne in mind that, in accordance with settled case-law, 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 for a preliminary ruling concern the interpretation of Community law, the Court is, in principle, bound to give a ruling (see, inter alia, Case C-415/93 Bosman  [1995] ECR I-4921, paragraph 59, and Case C-35/99 Arduino  [2002] ECR I-1529, paragraph 24).
30. However, the Court has also stated that, in exceptional circumstances, it can examine the conditions in which the case was referred to it by the national court, in order to assess whether it has jurisdiction (see, to that effect, Case 244/80 Foglia  [1981] ECR 3045, paragraph 21). 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 factual or legal material necessary to give a useful answer to the questions submitted to it (see, inter alia, Bosman , paragraph 61, and Arduino , paragraph 25).
42. It must be borne in mind that although the Member States are not obliged to adopt measures to transpose a directive before the end of the period prescribed for transposition, it follows from the second paragraph of Article 10 EC in conjunction with the third paragraph of Article 249 EC and from the directive itself that during that period they must refrain from taking any measures liable seriously to compromise the result prescribed by that directive (Case C-129/96 Inter-Environnement Wallonie  [1997] ECR I-7411, paragraph 45). The same applies to a transitional period, such as that provided for in the present case in Article 16(1) of Directive 98/8, during which Member States are authorised to continue to apply their national systems, even though they do not comply with that directive.
49. Furthermore, as the Court held at paragraph 39 of its judgment in Case C-306/98 Monsanto  [2001] ECR I-3297, it is against the yardstick of the requirements laid down in Article 4(1)(b)(i) to (v), and (c) to (f), of Directive 91/414 that the Member States must decide whether to review plant protection products.
59. In that regard, it should be observed first of all that, in accordance with recital 20 to Directive 98/8, close coordination should be ensured with other Community legislation and in particular with Directive 91/414.
60. Next, it should be recalled that the purpose of Article 8(2) of Directive 91/414 and of Article 16(1) of Directive 98/8 is to allow the Member States, during the transitional periods defined in those two directives, to apply existing national authorisation procedures for the placing on the market of the products covered by those directives and containing active substances which have not yet been evaluated at Community level.
61. Consequently, there appears to be no indication that the Community legislature’s intention was to give those provisions a different meaning.
62. That interpretation is borne out by paragraphs 43 and 44 of Monsanto , where the Court held that the transitional regime introduced by Article 8(2) of Directive 91/414 corresponds to the solution adopted in Article 16(1) of Directive 98/8.
63. In the light of the foregoing, the answer to Question 2 must be that Article 16(1) of Directive 98/8 has the same meaning as Article 8(2) of Directive 91/414.
Question 5
72. The requirements laid down in Article 4(1)(b) to (e) of Directive 91/414 relate to the safety and effectiveness of plant protection products. Article 4(1)(f) of that directive requires that Member States establish maximum residue levels and notify them to the Commission for approval. It is against the yardstick of those criteria that the Member States decide to review plant protection products (see, to that effect, Monsanto , paragraph 39).
77. According to settled case-law, the Member States’ obligation arising from a directive to achieve the result envisage by the directive and their duty under Article 10 EC to take all appropriate measures, whether general or particular, to ensure the fulfilment of that obligation, is binding on all the authorities of Member States including, for matters within their jurisdiction, the courts (see, in particular, Case 14/83 Von Colson and Kamann  [1984] ECR 1891, paragraph 26, and Case C-106/89 Marleasing  [1990] ECR I-4135, paragraph 8).
78. Thus, when it applies domestic law, and in particular legislative provisions specifically adopted for the purpose of implementing the requirements of a directive, the national court is bound to interpret national law, so far as possible, in the light of the wording and the purpose of the directive concerned in order to achieve the result sought by the directive and consequently comply with the third paragraph of Article 249 EC (see to that effect, inter alia, Von Colson and Kamann , paragraph 26, and Marleasing , paragraph 8).
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