Opinion of Advocate General Tesauro delivered on 18 February 1993

1 Original language: Italian.

2 OJ, English Special Edition 1972 (31 December), p. 4.

3 Case 104/75 [1976] ECR 613.

4 Case C-18/90 Kziber [1991] ECR I-199, paragraph 15; Case 12/86 Demirel [1987] ECR 3719, paragraph 14.

5 [1982] ECR 3641.

6 Case 65/79 Châtain [1980] ECR 1345.

7 Kupferberg ƒ, cited above, paragraph 30; Case 270/80 Polydor [1982] ECR 329, paragraphs 15 and 16.

8 Case 225/78 Bouhelier [1979] ECR 3151, paragraph 6.

9 See Article 31(1), whereby a treaty shall be interpreted in good faith in accordance with the ordinary meaning to be given to the terms of the treaty in their context and in the light of its object and purpose.

10 I recall here the ancient rule of interpretation, attributed to Celsus, whereby: Incivile est, nisi tota lege perspecta, una aliqua particula eius proposita, iudicare vel respondere.

11 In the recent judgment in Case C-163/90 Legros [1992] ECR I-4625, paragraph 26, the Court, referring to the free-trade agreement with Sweden, considered that the agreement would be deprived of much of its effectiveness if the term charge having equivalent effect contained in Article 6 of the agreement were to be interpreted as having a more limited scope than the same term appearing in the EEC Treaty.

12 Paragraph 4.

13 See Council Directive 65/65/EEC of 26 January 1965 on the approximation of provisions laid down by law, regulation or administrative action relating to proprietary medicinal products (OJ, English Special Edition 1965-1966, p. 20); Council Directive 75/318/EEC of 20 May 1975 on the approximation of the laws of Member States relating to analytical, pharmaco-toxicological and clinical standards and protocols in respect of the testing of proprietary medicinal products (OJ 1975 L 147, p. 1); Second Council Directive 75/319/EEC of 20 May 1975 on the approximation of provisions laid down by law, regulation or administrative action relating to proprietarv medicinal products (OJ 1975 L 147, p. 13).

14 Sec, in particular, Articles 8 to 15 of Directive 75/319/EEC and Council Decision 75/320/EEC of 20 May 1975 setting up a pharmaceutical committee (OJ 1975 L 147, p. 23).

15 OJ 1982 C 115, p. 5.