Judgment_paragraph 15 · Peter Gauweiler and Others v Deutscher Bundestag (C-62/14)

15In that regard, it should be observed that, according to settled case-law of the Court of Justice, Article 267 TFEU establishes a procedure for direct cooperation between the Court and the courts of the Member States (see, inter alia, judgments in SAT Fluggesellschaft, C‑364/92, EU:C:1994:7, paragraph 9, and ATB and Others, C‑402/98, EU:C:2000:366, paragraph 29). In that procedure, which is based on a clear separation of functions between the national courts and the Court, any assessment of the facts of the case is a matter for the national court, which must determine, in the light of the particular circumstances of the case, both the need for a preliminary ruling in order to enable it to deliver judgment and the relevance of the questions which it submits to the Court (see, to that effect, inter alia, judgments in WWF and Others, C‑435/97, EU:C:1999:418, paragraph 31, and Lucchini, C‑119/05, EU:C:2007:434, paragraph 43), whilst the Court is empowered to give rulings on the interpretation or the validity of an EU provision only on the basis of the facts which the national court puts before it (judgment in Eckelkamp and Others, C‑11/07, EU:C:2008:489, paragraph 52).