Keywords
Summary

Keywords

1. Preliminary rulings - Jurisdiction of the Court - Limits - Manifestly irrelevant questions and questions regarding hypothetical problems in a context which precludes any useful answer - Questions not related to the purpose of the main proceedings

(Art. 234 EC)

2. Agriculture - Uniform legislation - Protection of geographical indications and designations of origin for agricultural products and foodstuffs - Regulation No 2081/92 - System of derogation from Article 13(2) - Scope - Products originating in the State of the protected designation of origin - Not covered

(Council Regulation No 2081/92, Art. 13(2))

Summary

$$1. In the context of the cooperation between the Court of Justice and the national courts established by Article 234 EC, 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 by the national court concern the interpretation of Community law, the Court of Justice is, in principle, bound to give a ruling.

However, in exceptional circumstances, it is for the Court to examine the conditions in which the case was referred to it by the national court, in order to assess whether it has jurisdiction. 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 actual 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 paras 18-19 )

2. On a proper construction of Article 13(2) of Regulation No 2081/92 on the protection of geographical indications and designations of origin for agricultural products and foodstuffs, as amended by Regulation No 535/97, products are not covered by the system of derogations set up by that article where they originate in the State which obtained the protected designation of origin the protection of which under Article 13(1)(a) and (b) of Regulation No 2081/92, as amended, is at issue and they do not meet the product specification for that protected designation of origin.

( see para. 34, operative part )