Judgment_paragraph 260 · Criminal proceedings against PM and Others (C-357/19)

260In that context, it must be observed that Article 267 TFEU precludes any national rules or practice that can prevent national courts, as the case may be, from exercising the discretion or complying with the obligation, laid down in Article 267 TFEU, to make a reference for a preliminary ruling to the Court (see, to that effect, judgments of 5 April 2016, PFE, C‑689/13, EU:C:2016:199, paragraphs 32 to 34 and the case-law cited; of 19 November 2019, A. K. and Others (Independence of the Disciplinary Chamber of the Supreme Court), C‑585/18, C‑624/18 and C‑625/18, EU:C:2019:982, paragraph 103; and of 23 November 2021, IS (Illegality of the order for reference), C‑564/19, EU:C:2021:949, paragraph 93). Moreover, in accordance with the case-law cited in paragraph 227 of this judgment, for national judges, not being exposed to disciplinary proceedings or penalties for having exercised the discretion to make a reference for a preliminary ruling to the Court under Article 267 TFEU, which is exclusively within their jurisdiction, constitutes a guarantee that is essential to their independence. Similarly, if, following the answer given by the Court, a national judge of an ordinary court were prompted to take the view that the case-law of the national constitutional court is contrary to EU law, that national judge’s disapplication of that case-law, in accordance with the principle of the primacy of EU law, cannot in any way trigger his or her disciplinary liability.