Ditta Angelo Celestini v Saar-Sektkellerei Faber GmbH & Co. KG.
Date: 1997-06-05
20 Those arguments cannot be upheld.  As regards the alleged lack of international jurisdiction of the Italian courts and, accordingly, of the Tribunale Civile e Penale di Ravenna, it should be pointed out that it is not for the Court to determine whether the decision whereby a matter is brought before it was taken in conformity with the rules of domestic law governing the organization of the courts and their procedure (see, in particular, Case C-39/94 SFEI and Others v La Poste and Others [1996] ECR I-3574, paragraph 24).  The position is the same where, as in this case, international jurisdiction falls to be determined on the basis of the Convention of 27 September 1968 on Jurisdiction and the Enforcement of Judgments in Civil and Commercial Matters (OJ 1978 L 304, p. 77), unless the provisions of that convention are expressly made the subject of the reference for a preliminary ruling.
21 As regards the other arguments put forward to demonstrate that the questions referred to the Court are inadmissible, it is settled case-law that 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 (see, in particular, Case C-387/93 Banchero [1995] ECR I-4663, paragraph 15).  Consequently, where the questions submitted by the national court concern the interpretation of Community law, the Court of Justice is, in principle, bound to give a ruling (see, in particular, Case C-415/93 Union Royale Belge des Sociétés de Football Association and Others v Bosman and Others [1995] ECR I-4921, paragraph 59).
22 There have, however, been exceptional circumstances in which the Court has also taken the view that it fell to itself, in order to confirm its own jurisdiction, to examine the conditions in which the case had been referred to it by the national court (see, to that effect, Case 244/80 Foglia v Novello [1981] ECR 3045, paragraph 21).  A request from a national court may be refused only where it is manifest that the interpretation of Community law sought by that court has no relation to the actual facts of the main action or its purpose or where the problem is hypothetical and 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, in particular, Bosman, paragraph 61).
33 Accordingly, the measures of control referred to in Article 3 of Regulation No 2048/89 would not be permissible if their application were such as to place wines from other Member States at a disadvantage and, as a result, to constitute a measure having an effect equivalent to a quantitative restriction, prohibited by Article 30 of the Treaty (Joined Cases 89/74, 18/75 and 19/75 Procureur Général, Bordeaux  v Arnaud and Others [1975] ECR 1023, paragraph 13).  Those controls must, therefore, not be discriminatory.
34 In its judgment in Case 42/82 Commission v France [1983] ECR 1013, paragraph 54, the Court held, in regard to the Community legislation applicable at the material time, that the measures of verification carried out must be necessary for attainment of the objectives pursued and must not create obstacles to trade which were disproportionate to those objectives.  It follows that the authorities of the importing Member States are under a duty to take into account the existence of the checks carried out in the country of origin of the wine (see, in that regard, Commission v France, cited above, paragraph 56).  Thus the spirit of cooperation and mutual assistance between national authorities responsible for controls, referred to in Regulation No 2048/89, requires that the Member State into which the wine is imported must accept the certificates of analysis drawn up by the Member State in which the wine was produced.