Opinion of Advocate General Gulmann delivered on 17 March 1992

1 Original language: Dutch.

2 OJ 1982 L 230, p. 1.

3 This is made clear in the Parliament's opinion concerning the direttive of 14 July 1980, OJ 1980 C 175, p. 48, at p. 50.

4 See the fifth recital in the preamble to the directive.

5 The directive was amended twice, most recendy by Directive 88/610/EEC of 24 November 1988, OJ 1988 L 336, p. 14. Those amendments do not affect the provisions in the directive which are material to the present case, apart from Article 8(1).

6 See inter alia the judgment in Case 300/81 Commission v Italy [1983] ECR 449, at paragraph 10, where it is stated: It is indeed essential that each Member State should implement the directive in question in a way which fully satisfies the requirements of clarity and certainty in legal situations which the directive seeks in the interests of the institutions which are to benefit from the authorization provided for in the directive.

7 See judgment in Case C-339/87 Commission v Netherlands [1990] ECR 851, where inparagraph 6 infine it was held that ... the transposition of a directive into national law does not necessarily require the provisions of the directive to be enacted in precisely the same words in a specific express legal provision, and ... a general legal context maybe sufficient ifit actually ensures the full application of the directive in a sufficiently clear and precise manner. See also the judgment in Case C-13/90 Commission v France [1991] ECR I-4327, at paragraph 8, which contains further references.

8 See Arbeidsomstandighedenwet (Arbowet), which in Article 4(1) provides: In the general management of the establishment, the employer shall set up an operating system affording the greatest possible safety and the best possible protection of health and promoting the employee's wellbeing within the establishment or installation; it is to include the means and method by which that objective is to be achieved and lay down the various powers conferred and responsibilities imposed on the persons working for the employer. Stb. 1990, 94.

9 See Stb. 1981, 410.

10 Wet milieugevaarlijke stoffen, Stb. 1985, 639.

11 Wet inzake de luchtverontreiniging, Stb. 1970, 580, Brandweerwet, Stb. 1985, 87, and Rampenwet, Stb. 1985, 88.

12 See Article 2 (Stb. 1981, 660), which has most recently been amended by the Royal Decree of 15 September 1988 (Stb. 1988, 433).

13 In the course of the administrative procedure, before the application was lodged, the Commission claimed that both provisions were improperly implemented. It abandoned its criticism of the implementation of Article 6 before the case was brought before the Court and, as mentioned above, abandoned its criticism of the implementation of Article 5(3) at the hearing.

14 See the Court's latest judgment (1.10.91) on this point in Case 13/90 Commission v France, cited above, at paragraphs 8-10, with references to other judgments.