The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) issued an opinion Thursday in its first case heard in the Irish language. The case concerned the scope of the national court’s discretion to grant relief when national law breached EU law.

The case involved an EU directive that required veterinary medicinal products to be packaged “in the language or languages of the country in which they are placed on the market.” Ireland interpreted this into national law to mean that they may be labelled in either Irish or English. A man, who is a native Irish speaker, complained to the High Court of Ireland that the national law breached the EU directive, and sought declaration of the law’s amendment to include both Irish and English on veterinary medicinal products’ packaging.

The High Court upheld the claim that the national law breached the EU directive, but noted that a new EU regulation, applicable only from 2022 onwards, will allow veterinary medicinal products’ packaging to be in English only. It questioned whether to grant relief in view of the upcoming change and so applied to the CJEU for a preliminary ruling.

In the CJEU ruling, Advocate General Michal Bobek noted that EU law does not preclude a national court’s discretionary power to grant relief. He declined to give a set form of relief and noted that the conflict between EU law and national law is carried out on a “case-by-case basis.” Bobek recognized the concerns of both the Irish authorities and the applicant, asserting that, “[a]ll these matters are indeed for the referring court to assess and to balance. All the points discussed in this section were simply to confirm that there are a range of conceivable solutions.”

The High Court must now hand down a decision following the recommendations of the CJEU.