Request for a preliminary ruling from the Varhoven administrativen sad (Bulgaria) lodged on 14 April 2014 — EasyPay AD, Finance Engineering AD v Ministerski savet na Republika Balgaria, Natsionalen osiguritelen institut
(Case C-185/14)
Language of the case: Bulgarian
Referring court
Varhoven administrativen sad
Parties to the main proceedings
Applicants: EasyPay AD, Finance Engineering AD
Defendants: Ministerski savet na Republika Balgaria, Natsionalen osiguritelen institut
Questions referred
1. Is a postal service such as the postal money transfer service by which sums of money are transferred from the sender, which in this case is the State, to the recipients — persons entitled to social security payments — to be regarded as not being covered by the scope of Directive 97/67, 1 as amended by Directives 2002/39 2 and 2008/6, 3 such that it is subject to the provisions of Articles 106 and 107 TFEU?
2. If the first question is answered in the affirmative, are Articles 106 and 107 TFEU to be interpreted as meaning that they do not permit a restriction of free competition in the provision of a postal service such as that described if that is justified by compelling considerations relating to the guarantee of a constitutional right of citizens and the social policy of the State and if at the same time the service, by its nature, may be qualified as a service of general economic interest, provided that the compensation received by the service provider is public service compensation which does not exceed the sum laid down in Article 2(1)(a) of European Commission Decision C(2011) 9380 of 20 December 2011?
____________1 Directive 97/67/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 December 1997 on common rules for the development of the internal market of Community postal services and the improvement of quality of service (OJ 1997 L 15, p. 14).
2 Directive 2002/39/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 10 June 2002 amending Directive 97/67/EC with regard to the further opening to competition of Community postal services (OJ 2002 L 176, p. 21).
3 Directive 2008/6/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 February 2008 amending Directive 97/67/EC with regard to the full accomplishment of the internal market of Community postal services (OJ 2008 L 52, p. 3).