Discussing whether the Spanish Medical Council should refer Maria's case for preliminary ruling under article 234.

I will be discussing whether the Spanish Medical Council should refer Maria's case for preliminary ruling under article 234. The principle of Article 234 EC Treaty is to ensure that EC Law is applied and interpreted uniformly throughout the member states. Article 234 provides that a court or a tribunal must refer a matter of "interpretation of the statute of bodies established by an act of the Council, where those statutes so provide". The preliminary ruling proceedings may …

…evident that the SMC should make a referral to the court of justice, simply because it is the tribunal's duty to do so. Legislation should be interpreted according to the relevant directives. National courts must as far as possible interpret national law in the light of the wording and purpose of the Directive in order to achieve the result pursued by the Directive. Von Colson v Land Nordrhein-Westfahlen [1984] ECJ is a perfect example of this.