CM Eurologistik GmbH v Hauptzollamt Duisburg and Grünwald Logistik Service GmbH (GLS) v Hauptzollamt Hamburg-Stadt.
Date: 2016-01-28
44


According to settled case-law, however, the procedure laid down in Article 267 TFEU is based on a clear separation of functions between the national courts and the Court of Justice, with the result 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 (judgment in Simon, Evers & Co., C‑21/13, EU:C:2014:2154, paragraph 26).
45


It is also apparent from settled case-law that Article 267 TFEU does not make available a means of redress to the parties to a case pending before a national court, so that the Court cannot be compelled to evaluate the validity of EU law on the sole ground that that question has been put before it by one of the parties in its written observations (see, to that effect, the judgment in Simon, Evers & Co., C‑21/13, EU:C:2014:2154, paragraph 27 and the case-law cited).
48


In that regard, it must be recalled that, where the Court rules, in proceedings under Article 267 EC, that an act of the European Union is invalid, its decision has the legal effect of requiring the institutions concerned to take the necessary measures to remedy that illegality, as the obligation laid down in Article 266 TFEU in the case of a judgment annulling a measure applies in such a situation by analogy to judgments of the Court declaring an act of the European Union to be invalid (see, to that effect, judgment in Régie Networks, C‑333/07, EU:C:2008:764, paragraph 124 and the case-law cited).
49


In order to fulfil that obligation, the institutions concerned are required to have regard not only to the operative part of the judgment of annulment or invalidity, but also to the grounds which led to the judgment and constitute its essential basis, in so far as they are necessary to determine the exact meaning of what is stated in the operative part. It is those grounds which, on the one hand, identify the precise provision held to be illegal and, on the other, indicate the specific reasons which underlie the finding of illegality contained in the operative part and which the institution concerned must take into account when replacing the act annulled or declared invalid (see, to that effect, judgments inAsteris and Others v Commission, 97/86, 99/86, 193/86 and 215/86, EU:C:1988:199, paragraph 27, Spain v Commission, C‑415/96, EU:C:1998:533, paragraph 31, and Italy v Commission, C‑417/06 P, EU:C:2007:733, paragraph 50).
50


Nevertheless, it should be recalled that, first, Article 266 TFEU requires the institutions which adopted the act annulled to take the necessary measures to comply with the judgment annulling or declaring invalid its measure (judgment in Commission v AssiDomän Kraft Products and Others, C‑310/97 P, EU:C:1999:407, paragraph 50) and, second, that the annulment of a Union act does not necessarily affect the preparatory acts thereof (judgment in Limburgse Vinyl Maatschappij v Commission, C‑238/99 P, C‑244/99 P, C‑245/99 P, C‑247/99 P, C‑250/99 P to C‑252/99 P and C‑254/99 P, EU:C:2002:582, paragraph 73).
51


Consequently, except where the irregularity found rendered the entire procedure null and void, those institutions may, in order to adopt an act intended to replace a preceding act annulled or declared invalid, reopen the procedure at the stage at which that irregularity was committed (see, to that effect, judgment in Italy v Commission, C‑417/06 P, EU:C:2007:733, paragraph 52 and the case-law cited).
52


Having regard to the foregoing, it is not necessary that the option of reopening the procedure should be expressly provided for by the applicable legislation in order that the institutions which adopted an act annulled or declared invalid may avail themselves of it. The Court has, furthermore, already been able to find, without referring to a specific legal basis, that such an option was available to them following a judgment annulling a regulation imposing anti-dumping duties (see, to that effect, the judgment in Industrie des poudres sphériques v Council, C‑458/98 P, EU:C:2000:531, paragraphs 84 and 94).
65


However, the Court has already had occasion to rule, in relation to Article 7(1)(c) of Council Regulation (EEC) No 2423/88 of 11 July 1988 on protection against dumped or subsidised imports from countries not members of the European Economic Community (OJ 1988 L 209, p. 1), the provisions of which are analogous to Article 6(1) of the basic regulation, that the rules for determining the reference period to be taken into account for anti-dumping investigations set out in that provision were a guide and not mandatory (judgment in Industrie des poudres sphériques v Council, C‑458/98 P, EU:C:2000:531, paragraph 88).
76


Consequently, the institutions have broad discretion to decide the measures to put into effect in order to give due effect to an annulling judgment or declaration of invalidity, it being understood, as was stated in paragraph 49 of this judgment, that the measures must be compatible with the operative part of the judgment in question and the grounds constituting its essential basis.