Criminal proceedings against Xavier Tridon.
Date: 2001-10-23
24 Therefore, without there being any need to determine whether the Court has jurisdiction, in the context of the cooperation between it and the national courts under Article 234 EC, to rule on the interpretation of the provisions of CITES, such an interpretation is in any event unnecessary in the present case, since those provisions apply at Community level only via the two regulations cited in the preceding paragraph.
25 However, since Regulation No 3626/82 and Regulation No 338/97 both apply, as stated in the second paragraph of Article 1 in each case, in compliance with the objectives, principles and (in the case of Regulation No 338/97) provisions of CITES, the Court cannot disregard those elements, in so far as they have to be taken into account in order to interpret the provisions of the regulations.
28 In the procedure of cooperation established by Article 234 EC, it is not for the Court of Justice, however, but for the national court to ascertain the facts which have given rise to the dispute and to establish the consequences which they have for the judgment it is required to deliver (see, inter alia, Case C-435/97 WWF and Others [1999] ECR I-5613, paragraph 32).
The questions referred for a preliminary ruling
Species covered by Appendix I to CITES or Annex I to Regulation No 338/97
33 Second, it should be noted that under Article 8(1) of Regulation No 338/97 all commercial use of specimens of the species listed in Annex A to that regulation is prohibited.
44 The commercial use of specimens of the species listed in Annex B to Regulation No 338/97 is thus authorised where the conditions laid down in Article 8(5) of that regulation are complied with.
46 So, if the French Republic did adopt or maintain stricter measures than those laid down by Regulation No 3626/82 or No 338/97, it is possible that the referring court may need to consider the compatibility of the prohibition of commercial use of the species at issue as prescribed by the French legislation, in particular the Guyane decree, with Articles 30 and 36 of the Treaty. That would be the case in so far as that legislation applied to situations linked to the importation of goods in intra-Community trade (see, inter alia, Case 298/87 Smanor [1988] ECR 4489, paragraphs 7 and 8, and Case C-448/98 Guimont [2000] ECR I-10663, paragraph 21).
49 A prohibition of the commercial use of specimens of species in Appendix II to CITES or Annex B to Regulation No 338/97 such as that laid down by the French legislation, in particular the Guyane decree, constitutes a stricter measure within the meaning of Article 15 of Regulation No 3626/82 or a more stringent measure within the meaning of Article 130t of the Treaty as the case may be. Moreover, where such a measure is applied to specimens from another Member State, it is liable to restrict intra-Community trade, contrary to Article 30 of the Treaty.
58 It is clear that the assessment to be made of the proportionality of the prohibition of trade at issue in the main proceedings, in particular whether the objective sought could be achieved by measures having less effect on intra-Community trade, cannot be performed in the present case without additional information, and that such an assessment requires a specific analysis on the basis of scientific studies and of the factual circumstances of the main proceedings, it being for the national court to make that analysis.