Conseil général de la Vienne v Directeur général des douanes et droits indirects.
Date: 2006-06-22
19. In that regard, it must be recalled that, in proceedings under Article 234 EC, which are based on a clear separation of functions between the national courts and the Court of Justice, any assessment of the facts in the case is a matter for the national court. Similarly, 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 concern the interpretation of Community law, the Court is in principle bound to give a ruling (see, inter alia, Case C-326/00 IKA  [2003] ECR I-1703, paragraph 27, and Case C-145/03 Keller  [2005] ECR I-2529, paragraph 33).
20. Nevertheless, the Court has also held that, in exceptional circumstances, it can examine the conditions in which the case was referred to it by the national court, in order to confirm its own 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, Case C-379/98 PreussenElektra  [2001] ECR I-2099, paragraph 39, and Case C-390/99 Canal Satélite Digital  [2002] ECR I-607, paragraph 19).
24. Furthermore, it must be borne in mind that the Court must take account, under the division of jurisdiction between the Community judicature and the national courts, of the factual and legislative context, as described in the order for reference, in which the questions put to it are set (see, inter alia, Case C-475/99 Ambulanz Glöckner  [2001] ECR I‑8089, paragraph 10, and Case C-136/03 Dörr and Ünal  [2005] ECR I‑4759, paragraph 46).
33. While it is true that, according to well-established case-law, procedural rules are generally held to apply to all proceedings pending at the time when they enter into force, whereas substantive rules are usually interpreted as not applying to situations existing before their entry into force (see, inter alia, Joined Cases C‑121/91 and C-122/91 CT Control (Rotterdam) and JCT Benelux v Commission [1993] ECR I-3873, paragraph 22; Case C-61/98 De Haan  [1999] ECR I-5003, paragraph 13; and Case C-251/00 Ilumitrónica  [2002] ECR I-10433, paragraph 29), the fact remains that, as the Advocate General observed in points 33 and 34 of his Opinion, the new law applies immediately only in relation to situations which, although they arose at the time when the earlier legislation was in force, continue to produce effects when the new legislation becomes applicable.
38. Those three conditions were already set out as such in Article 5(2) of Council Regulation (EEC) No 1697/79 of 24 July 1979 on the post-clearance recovery of import duties or export duties which have not been required of the person liable for payment on goods entered for a customs procedure involving the obligation to pay such duties (OJ 1979 L 197, p. 1), a regulation which was repealed by the Community Customs Code. According to the settled case-law of the Court, those three conditions must be satisfied cumulatively (see, inter alia, Joined Cases C‑153/94 and C-204/94 Faroe Seafood and Others  [1996] ECR I‑2465, paragraph 83; Case C-370/96 Covita  [1998] ECR I-7711, paragraph 24; Case C-15/99 Sommer [2000] ECR I-8989, paragraph 35; and Ilumitrónica , paragraph 37).
42. As the Court has stated with regard to Article 5 of Regulation No 1697/79, the objective of conferring on the Commission a power of decision in regard to the post-clearance recovery of customs duties is to ensure the uniform application of Community law. That is likely to be jeopardised in cases where an application to waive post-clearance recovery is allowed, since the assessment which a Member State may make in taking a favourable decision is likely, in actual fact, owing to the probable absence of any appeal, to escape any review by means of which the uniform application of the conditions laid down in the Community legislation may be ensured. On the other hand, that is not the case where the national authorities proceed to effect recovery, whatever the amount in issue. It is then open to the person concerned to challenge such a decision before the national courts. As a result, it will then be possible for the uniformity of Community law to be ensured by the Court of Justice through the preliminary ruling procedure (Case C‑64/89 Deutsche Fernsprecher  [1990] ECR I-2535, paragraph 13; Case C-348/89 Mecanarte  [1991] ECR I-3277, paragraph 33; and Faroe Seafood and Others , paragraph 34).