JUDGMENT OF 5. 7. 1967 — CASE 6/67 PACE V ASSURANCE MALADIE - INVALIDITÉ

In Case 6/67 Reference to the Court of Justice under Article 177 of the EEC Treaty by IIIrd Chamber, Section d'Administration, of the Belgian Conseil d'État for a preliminary ruling in the action pending before that court between

THE COURT composed of: A. Trabucchi, President of Chamber, President, R. Monaco, President of Chamber, A. M. Donner (Rapporteur), R. Lecourt and W. Strauß, Judges, Advocate-General: J. Gand Registrar: A. Van Houtte

gives the following

JUDGMENT

Issues of fact and of law

I — Facts and procedure

II — Observations submitted under Article 20 of the Statute of the Court

Grounds of judgment

Costs

I —. Facts and procedure

II —. Observations submitted under Article 20 of the Statute of the Court

(a). On 11 January 1966 the Commission of the EEC submitted to the Council a proposal for the regulation intended to replace Regulation No 3 then in force; Article 67 of the draft which would replace the present Article 45 (4) provides that: The authorities, institutions and courts of one Member State shall not reject claims, or other documents submitted to them, on the grounds that they are written in an official language of another Member State. The Government wonders whether there is any point in maintaining now that the Conseil d'État may only have applications brought before it in one of the three languages used in Belgium, although this argument will be precluded in the near future.

(b). Regulation No 3 was substituted tor Treaty provisions which already provided that migrant workers might use their own language in court proceedings.

(a). Regulation No 3 does not expressly define the term authorities and the definition of the term competent authority given by Article 1 (d) of Regulation No 3 is not decisive in resolving whether or not the term authorities is applicable to courts.

(b). Literally interpreted, the terms autorités, Behörden, 'autorità and autoriteiten do not have identical scope in all the Community languages.

(c). The nature of the documents referred to by Article 45 (4) (claims) does not exclude the interpretation that authorities include courts.

(d). Article 47 or Regulation No 3, which clearly refers to courts as well as to administrative authorities, speaks of an authority, institution or other agency of that State. It is not impossible to find a certain difference between Articles 45 and 47 and to consider that courts are included having regard to the fact that in Article 47 the expression other agency has been added to authorities and institutions; although this argument does have some force, it must indeed be recognized that the expression in question is one which is rarely used to describe courts.

(e). The preparatory studies do not make it possible to conclude with certainty that the authors of the European Convention drawn up under the aegis of the ECSC intended to include courts in the scope of the provisions which were to become Article 45 (4).

On those grounds, Upon reading the pleadings; Upon hearing the report of the Judge-Rapporteur; Upon hearing the oral observations of the Commission of the EEC; Upon hearing the opinion of the Advocate-General; Having regard to the Treaty establishing the EEC, especially Article 177; Having regard to the Protocol on the Statute of the Court of Justice of the EEC, especially Article 20; Having regard to Regulation No 3 of the Council of the EEC concerning social security for migrant workers (Official Journal of 16 December 1958, p. 561 et seq.), especially Articles 1, 45 and 47; Having regard to the Rules of Procedure of the Court of Justice of the European Communities, THE COURT in answer to the question referred to it for a preliminary ruling by the IIIrd Chamber, Section d'Administration, of the Belgian Conseil d'État, hereby rules:

I The courts of a Member State having jurisdiction in social security matters are included amongst the authorities within the meaning of Article 45 of Regulation No 3;

2 The decision on costs in the present proceedings is a matter for the Belgian Conseil d'État.