Should Lithuania be held liable for rarely requesting the Court of Justice of European Union to give a preliminary ruling?

The purpose of this article is to decide whether Lithuania suitably exercises the duty arising from the Article 267 of Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union and probability of being liable for the breach of it. Lithuania joined the European Union more than 8 years ago and during this period national courts of Lithuania had enough practice of requesting Court of Justice of the European Union for preliminary rulings. The impulse for this work came from the fact that in 2001 European Commission took action against Sweden for not properly performed duty of national courts to request Court of Justice of the European Union for preliminary rulings. According to European Commission, liability of Sweden was based on conditions referred bellow: a) rare practice of requesting for preliminary rulings; b) absence of national regulations for procedure of national courts requesting Court of Justice of the European Union for preliminary rulings; c) unsubstantiated rejections of persons requests for preliminary rulings. By analysing case law of national courts of Lithuania and comparing it to Latvia and Estonia, it comes to conclusion that national courts request Court of Justice of the European Union for preliminary rulings rather often. Also, these preliminary rulings have substantial impact on Lithuania legal system. In addition, there are codified norms for procedure of applying to the Court of Justice. Finally, rejections to apply for preliminary rulings given by national courts of Lithuania are thoughtful and rely on conditions provided in Court of Justice of the European Union case CILFIT v Ministero della Sanita. Taking into consideration all the arguments mentioned above, authors of this article may conclude that Lithuania suitably exercises the duty to request Court of Justice of the European Union for preliminary ruling and there is no risk to be liable for the breach of this duty