Traunfellner GmbH v Österreichische Autobahnen- und Schnellstraßen-Finanzierungs-AG (Asfinag).
Date: 2003-10-16
21.  Under Article 234 EC, which is based on a clear separation of functions between national courts and tribunals and the Court of Justice, the latter is empowered to rule on the interpretation or validity of Community provisions only on the basis of the facts which the national court or tribunal puts before it. However, it is for the national court or tribunal to apply the rules of Community law to a specific case. No such application is possible without a comprehensive appraisal of the facts of the case (Case C-107/98   Teckal   [1999] ECR I-8121, paragraphs 29 and 31). The Court therefore has no jurisdiction to give a ruling on the facts in the main proceedings or to apply the rules of Community law which it has interpreted to national measures or situations, since those questions are matters for the exclusive jurisdiction of the national court or tribunal (see Case C-318/98   Fornasar and Others   [2000] ECR I-4785, paragraph 32).
27.  This being so, it is clear from the very wording of the second paragraph of Article 19 of the Directive that, where the contracting authority has not excluded the submission of variants, it is under an obligation to set out in the contract documents the minimum specifications with which those variants must comply.
28.  Consequently, the reference made in the contract documents to a provision of national legislation cannot satisfy the requirement laid down in the second paragraph of Article 19 of the Directive (see, by analogy, with respect to the reference made to a provision of national legislation with a view to defining the criteria for the award of a public works contract to the most economically advantageous tender, Case 31/87   Beentjes   [1988] ECR 4635, paragraph 35, and Case C-225/98   Commission   v   France   [2000] ECR I-7445, paragraph 73).
29.  Tenderers may be deemed to be informed in the same way of the minimum specifications with which their variants must comply in order to be considered by the contracting authority only where those specifications are set out in the contract documents. This involves an obligation of transparency designed to ensure compliance with the principle of equal treatment of tenderers, which must be complied with in any procurement procedure governed by the Directive (see, to that effect, with respect to award criteria, Case C-19/00   SIAC Construction   [2001] ECR I-7725, paragraphs 41 and 42).
37.  It is settled case-law that, in the context of the cooperation between the Court of Justice and national courts and tribunals provided for in Article 234 EC, it is solely for the national court or tribunal 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 its decision and the relevance of the questions which it submits to the Court. The Court may refuse to rule on a question referred for a preliminary ruling by a national court or tribunal only where it is quite obvious that the interpretation of Community law sought bears no relation to the actual facts of the main proceedings or to their 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 (see, in particular,  Case C-399/98   Ordine degli Architetti and Others   [2001] ECR I-5409, paragraph 41).