Judgment_paragraph 48 · 'SEGRO' Kft. v Vas Megyei Kormányhivatal Sárvári Járási Földhivatala and Günther Horváth v Vas Megyei Kormányhivatal (C-52/16, C-113/16)

48It should be recalled that, according to settled case-law, national courts have the widest discretion to refer to the Court of Justice questions of interpretation of relevant provisions of EU law and that a rule of national law cannot prevent a national court from using that discretion. Such a discretion is an inherent part of the system of cooperation between the national courts and the Court established in Article 267 TFEU and of the functions of the court responsible for the application of EU law which are entrusted by that provision to the national courts (see, to that effect, judgment of 5 April 2016, PFE, C‑689/13, EU:C:2016:199, paragraphs 32 and 33 and the case-law cited). The Court has thus held in particular that the existence of a rule of national law whereby courts against whose decisions there is a judicial remedy are bound on points of law by the rulings of a court superior to them cannot, on the basis of that fact alone, deprive the lower courts of that discretion (judgment of 22 June 2010, Melki and Abdeli, C‑188/10 and C‑189/10, EU:C:2010:363, paragraph 42).