Joined Cases C‑177/17 and C‑178/17

Demarchi Gino Sas
and
Graziano Garavaldi

v

Ministero della Giustizia

(Requests for a preliminary ruling
from the Tribunale amministrativo regionale per il Piemonte)

(Reference for a preliminary ruling — Article 47(2) of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union — Implementation of EU law — Lack of a sufficiently close connection — Lack of jurisdiction of the Court)

Summary — Order of the Court (Seventh Chamber), 7 September 2017

Questions referred for a preliminary ruling — Jurisdiction of the Court — Limits — Request for an interpretation of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union — National legislation not constituting a measure implementing EU law and not having any other connection with EU law — Clear lack of jurisdiction of the Court

(Art. 6(1), TEU; Art. 267 TFEU; Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, Art. 51(1) and (2); Rules of Procedure of the Court, Art. 53(2))

In order to determine whether national legislation involves the implementation of EU law for the purposes of Article 51 of the Charter, some of the points to be determined are whether that legislation is intended to implement a provision of EU law, the nature of that legislation and whether it pursues objectives other than those covered by EU law, even if it is capable of indirectly affecting EU law, and also whether there are specific rules of EU law on the matter or capable of affecting it (judgments of 6 March 2014, Siragusa, C‑206/13, EU:C:2014:126, paragraph 25 and the case-law cited, and of 10 July 2014, Julián Hernández and Others, C‑198/13, EU:C:2014:2055, paragraph 37).

In the present case, as is apparent from the orders for reference, the national provision at issue in the main proceedings concerns the procedure to recover amounts owed by the State by way of fair compensation for the excessive length of legal proceedings, provided for in Article 5sexies of Law No 89/2001. However, it must be noted that the provisions of the TFEU cited to by the referring court impose no specific obligations on the Member States as regards the recovery of sums owed by the State by way of fair compensation for the excessive duration of legal proceedings, and that, as it currently stands, EU law includes no specific rules in this field.

It follows from this that there is nothing to indicate that the dispute in the main proceedings relates to the interpretation or application of a rule of EU law other than those set out in the Charter. When a legal situation does not come within the scope of EU law, the Court has no jurisdiction to rule on it and any provisions of the Charter relied upon cannot, of themselves, form the basis for such jurisdiction (order of 18 February 2016, Rîpanu, C‑407/15, not published, EU:C:2016:167, paragraph 22 and the case-law cited).

(see paras 20, 22, 25, 28)