Opinion of the Advocate General — ECLI:EU:C:2001:612
Date: 2001-11-15
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: Right of establishment;Freedom to provide services
Procedure: Reference for a preliminary ruling
Origin: Belgium

Summary of the Judgment 
1. Acts of the institutions — Directives — Implementation by Member States — Need 
to ensure the effective application of directives — Obligations of the national courts 
(EC Treaty, Art. 189, third para, (now Art. 249, third para., EC)) 
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SUMMARY — CASE C-386/00 
2. Freedom of movement for persons — Freedom of establishment — Freedom to 
provide services — Direct life assurance — Directive 92/96 — Information to be 
given to the policy holder — National legislation requiring a warning that the 
cancellation, reduction or surrender of an existing assurance policy for the purpose of 
subscribing to another policy is generally detrimental — Not permissible 
(Council Directive 92/96, Art. 31(3)) 
1. Even if, in the absence of proper trans­
position into national law, a directive 
cannot of itself impose obligations on 
individuals, the national court that has 
to interpret that law must do so, as far 
as possible, in the light of the wording 
and the purpose of the directive so as to 
achieve the result it has in view and 
thereby comply with the third para­
graph of Article 189 of the Treaty 
(now the th i rd p a r a g r a p h of 
Article 249 EC). 
(see para. 18) 
2. Article 31(3) of Directive 92/96 on the 
coordination of laws, regulations and 
administrative provisions relating to 
direct life assurance and amending 
Directives 79/267 and 90/619 (third 
life assurance Directive) precludes 
national legislation which provides that 
a life-assurance proposal, or in the 
absence of a proposal, a life-assurance 
policy must inform the policy-holder 
that cancellation, reduction or sur­
render of an existing life-assurance 
contract for the purpose of subscribing 
to another life-assurance policy is gen­
erally detrimental to the policy-holder. 
The additional information Member 
States may require in accordance with 
that article must be clear, accurate and 
necessary for a proper understanding 
of the essential characteristics of assur­
ance products proposed to the policy­
holder. Information as vague and gen­
eral as that given by such a warning 
does not satisfy those requirements. 
(see paras 24-25, 30-31, 
operative part) 
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