Judgment of the Court First Chamber of 17 March 2021, An tAire Talmhaíochta Bia agus Mara, Éire agus an tArd-Aighne, Case C-64/20

• Date: 17 March 2021
• Year: 2021

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account. In that regard, the Court notes, in addition to the doubts previously mentioned in relation to

the independence of the KRS, the fact that the 2018 legislative amendments were made very shortly

before the KRS in its new composition was called upon to decide on applications, such as the

appellants’, submitted in order to fill numerous judicial positions at the Supreme Court which have

been declared vacant or newly created as a result of the entry into force of various amendments to

the Law on the Supreme Court.

Lastly, the Court specifies that, if the referring court reaches the conclusion that the 2018 legislative

amendments infringe EU law, it will be for that court, under the principle of the primacy of that law, to

disapply those amendments and to apply instead the national provisions previously in force while

itself exercising the review envisaged by those latter provisions.

II. INSTITUTIONAL PROVISIONS

Judgment of the Court (First Chamber) of 17 March 2021, An tAire Talmhaíochta Bia agus

Mara, Éire agus an tArd-Aighne, Case C-64/20

Link to the complete text of the judgment

Reference for a preliminary ruling – Article 288 TFEU – Directive 2001/82/EC – Community code relating to

veterinary medicinal products – Articles 58, 59 and 61 – Information to be provided on outer packaging,

immediate packaging and the package leaflet for veterinary medicinal products – Obligation to provide

information in all the official languages of the Member State in which the product is marketed – National

legislation providing that the information may be provided in one or other of the official languages of the

Member State – National court hearing an action for a declaration that the Member State had failed

correctly to transpose Directive 2001/82/EC and that the competent national authorities must amend the

national legislation

UH, an Irish citizen and a native Irish speaker from the Galway Gaeltacht (the Irish-speaking region of

Galway, Ireland), found that the information accompanying veterinary medicinal products was written

exclusively in the English language. He takes the view that Directive 2001/82

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requires that that

information be provided in the two official languages of Ireland, namely Irish and English. On

14 November 2016, UH requested that the Ard-Chúirt (High Court, Ireland) declare that Ireland had

incorrectly transposed that directive and was under an obligation to amend its legislation accordingly.

The Ard-Chúirt (High Court) found that Irish legislation on the labelling and package leaflet of

veterinary medicinal products does not comply with the language requirements laid down by the

directive and is, therefore, in contravention of Article 288 TFEU.

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Nevertheless, that court observed

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Directive 2001/82/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 6 November 2001 on the Community code relating to veterinary

medicinal products (OJ 2001 L 311 , p. 1), as amended by Dir ective 2004/28/EC of the European Parli ament and of the Council of 31 March

2004 (OJ 2004 L 136, p. 58). Directive 2001/82 provides, inter alia, that outer packaging or cont ainers of veterinary medicinal products must

include man datory particulars relating to medicinal products, for example the name, strength, form, constituents, manufacture r's batch

number, authorisation number , species of animal and dose. Article 58(4) of the Directive provides that those particul ars shall appear ‘in the

language or languages of the country in which they are placed on the market’.

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Article 288(3) TFEU provides that ‘a directive shall be b inding, as to the result to be achieved, upon each Member State to which it is

addressed, but shall leave to the national authorities the choice of form and methods ’.