10.7.2017

Official Journal of the European Union

C 221/2

Request for a preliminary ruling from the Tribunale Amministrativo Regionale per le Marche (Italy) lodged on 6 March 2017 — Comune di Castelbellino v Regione Marche and Others

(Case C-117/17)

(2017/C 221/02)

Language of the case: Italian

Referring court

Tribunale Amministrativo Regionale per le Marche

Parties to the main proceedings

Applicant: Comune di Castelbellino

Defendants: Regione Marche, Ministero per i beni e le attività culturali, Ministero dell’Ambiente e della Tutela del Territorio e del Mare, Regione Marche Servizio Infrastrutture Trasporti Energia — P.F. Rete Elettrica Regionale, Provincia di Ancona

Questions referred

Does EU law (and in particular Directive 2011/92/EU, (1) in the version in force on the date of adoption of the contested measures) preclude, as a rule, a national rule or administrative practice which allows EIA screening or EIAs in respect of plants already in existence at the time when the procedure takes place, or does it, on the other hand, allow exceptional circumstances justifying a derogation from the general rule that an EIA is, by nature, a preventative assessment to be taken in into account?

2.	More particularly, is such a derogation justified in the case in which a new law exempts from an EIA a specific project which would have been subject to screening on the basis of a decision of the national court that declared unconstitutional or disapplied an earlier rule providing for exemption?

(1) Directive 2011/92/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 December 2011 on the assessment of the effects of certain public and private projects on the environment (OJ 2012 L 26, p. 1).