1. 

Questions referred for a preliminary ruling – Reference to the Court – Content of a request for a preliminary ruling – National rule providing for the national criminal court to decline jurisdiction on the basis that it expressed a view on the facts of the case in the request for a preliminary ruling on pain of annulment of the decision to be given on the merits of the case – Not permissible

(Art. 4(3) TEU; Art. 267 TFEU; Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, Art. 47, second para.; Rules of Procedure of the Court of Justice, Art. 94)

(see paras 30-32, 34-36, operative part 1)

2. 

Member States – Obligations – Power of the national courts to put questions to the Court of Justice – Primacy – National legislation preventing a national court or tribunal from maintaining a request for a preliminary ruling addressed to the Court – Not permissible – Obligations and powers of the national courts – Obligation to disapply any national provision contrary to EU law

(Article 267 TFEU)

(see para. 33)

3. 

Questions referred for a preliminary ruling – Reference to the Court – Jurisdiction of national courts – Requirement for national courts to inform their own Member State of any request for a preliminary ruling submitted to the Court – Irrelevant

(Art. 267 TFEU; Statute of the Court of Justice, Art. 23)

(see paras 39, 43, operative part 2)

1. 

Article 267 TFEU and Article 94(1)(a) of the Rules of Procedure of the Court of Justice, read in the light of Article 4(3) TEU and the second paragraph of Article 47 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, must be interpreted as precluding a national rule which requires courts hearing criminal cases, when they make factual findings in the context of a request for a preliminary ruling made to the Court, to decline jurisdiction on pain of annulment of the decision to be given on the merits of the case. Such a rule must be disregarded by those courts and by any authority empowered to apply it.

2. 

Article 18 TFEU, Article 21(2) of the Charter of Fundamental Rights and Article 23 of the Statute of the Court of Justice of the European Union must be interpreted as not precluding legislation of a Member State requiring a court which has submitted a request for a preliminary ruling to the Court to send a copy of that request to the authority responsible for representing that Member State before the Court.