Opinion of the Advocate General — ECLI:EU:C:1999:265
Date: 1999-05-20
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: Social security for migrant workers;Social Policy
Procedure: Action for failure to fulfil obligations - successful
Origin: France

Summary of the Judgment 
1. Member States — Obligations — Failure to fulfil obligations — Maintenance in force 
of national legislation incompatible with Community law — Not permissible 
irrespective of whether or not the provision of Community law at issue is directly 
applicable 
2. Acts of the institutions — Directives — Implementation by the Member States — 
Directive intended to confer rights on individuals — Whether such directives may be 
transposed into national law without benefit of legislation — Not permissible 
1. The incompatibility of national legisla­
tion with provisions of Community 
law, even with those which are directly 
applicable, can be finally remedied 
only by means of national provisions 
of a binding nature which have the 
same legal force as those which must be 
amended. 
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SUMMARY — CASE C-354/98 
2. The provisions of a directive must be 
implemented with unquestionable 
binding force and with the specificity, 
precision and clarity required in order 
to satisfy the requirement of legal 
certainty, under which, in the case of 
a directive intended to confer rights on 
individuals, persons concerned must be 
enabled to ascertain the full extent of 
their rights. 
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