31It must be borne in mind at the outset that under Article 234 EC the Court has no power to apply rules of Community law to a particular case, but only to rule on the interpretation of the Treaty and of acts adopted by Community institutions (see, in particular, the judgment in Joined Cases C-9/97 and C-118/97Jokela and Pitkäranta [1998] ECR I-6267, paragraph 30).