33The Spanish, Latvian and Austrian Governments, by contrast, submit that, as from accession to the European Union, the national courts of the new Member State are obliged, in a case such as that in the main proceedings here, to interpret the provisions of national law designed to approximate that national law to the Directive in the light of the latter. Where a question referred for a preliminary ruling comes from a national court or tribunal within the meaning of Article 234 EC, the Court must, as a rule, answer it. The Latvian Government also notes that, according to settled case-law, the Court has jurisdiction to deliver preliminary rulings on orders for reference concerning Community provisions in situations where the facts in the main proceedings are outside the scope of application of Community law but to which those provisions of Community law have been rendered applicable by national law (Joined Cases C-297/88 and C-197/89 Dzodzi [1990] ECR I-3763, paragraph 36, and Case C-130/95 Giloy [1997] ECR I-4291, paragraph 23). The Latvian Government states, in that respect, that if a provision of national law is identical in content to a provision of Community law, those two provisions must be interpreted in a uniform manner, irrespective of whether the accession of a Member State to the European Union took place before or after the approximation of the national law of that State to Community law.
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