31.8.2013

Official Journal of the European Union

C 252/12

(Case C-57/12) (<span class="super">1</span>)

(Directive 2006/123/EC - Scope ratione materiae - Healthcare services - Social services - Day-care centres and Night-care centres providing assistance and care to elderly persons)

2013/C 252/19

Language of the case: French

Referring court

Parties to the main proceedings

Applicant: Fédération des maisons de repos privées de Belgique (Femarbel) ASBL

Defendant: Commission communautaire commune de Bruxelles-Capitale

Re:

Request for a preliminary ruling — Cour constitutionnelle — Interpretation of Article 2(2)(f) and (j) of Directive 2006/123/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 December 2006 on services in the internal market (OJ 2006 L 376, p. 36) — Scope ratione materiae — Healthcare services — Social services — Inclusion of day-care centres providing assistance and care appropriate to old people’s loss of independence — Inclusion of night-care centres providing health assistance and care that cannot be given to old people by their close relatives on a continuous basis

Operative part of the judgment

1.Article 2(2)(f) of Directive 2006/123/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 December 2006 on services in the internal market must be interpreted as meaning that the exclusion of healthcare services from the scope of that directive covers any activity intended to assess, maintain or restore the state of health of patients, where that activity is carried out by healthcare professionals recognised as such by the Member State concerned, regardless of the ways in which the facilities in which that care is provided are organised and financed or whether they are public or private. It is for the national court to ascertain whether day-care centres and night-care centres are excluded from the scope of that directive, having regard to the nature of the activities carried out by the healthcare professionals in those centres and whether those activities constitute a principal part of the services offered by those centres.

2.Article 2(2)(j) of Directive 2006/123 must be interpreted as meaning that the exclusion of social services from the scope of that directive includes any activity relating, inter alia, to the care and assistance of elderly persons, where that activity is carried out by a private service provider which has been mandated by the State by means of an act conferring, in a clear and transparent manner, a genuine obligation to provide such services under specific conditions. It is for the national court to ascertain whether day-care centres and night-care centres are excluded from the scope of Directive 2006/123, on the basis of the nature of the principle activities of care and assistance of elderly persons carried out in those centres, and the status of those centres under the applicable Belgian legislation.

(1)

OJ C 118, 21.4.2012.