Page 207 - Секретаријат за законодавство

For directives and their horizontal and vertical direct effect, the Eu-
ropean Court of Justice is of position that directives may confer only
rights to individuals (in relation to a State), and not impose obligations
to individuals (in favour of a State or of individuals). It means that
directives may only cause vertical direct effect unlike regulations and
provisions in the Treaties that have not only vertical but also horizon-
tal direct effect in relation to individuals. In the case where obligations
deriving from directives are not observed a State is liable for compen-
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sation (case Frankovich ), under the following conditions:
1. Directive stipulates particular rights for individuals;

2. Content and scope of the rights are explicitly determined in a
directive; and

3. Damage caused to an individual is a relation of cause and ef-
fect with the fact that a State failed to observe the obligations
deriving from the directive.

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Note the crucial difference (landmark: case Van Gend en Loos ):
- direct applicability: provisions of the EU legal system are valid
and no further activity of the legislative or any other authority
in the Member State is needed, while
- direct effect: quality of a directly applicable provision to which
individuals can invoke in the proceedings before national courts.

Provisions referred to in the EU legal acts may be directly applicable
and may have direct effect only if they satisfy the following criteria:

- No discretion is allowed to the Member States and to EU insti-
tutions in view of implementation regarding to application of
obligations deriving from a particular provision;
- They are to be “legally impeccable”, meaning that national
courts may apply them without any further legal activity as-
sumed by the EU institutions or by the Member States;

5 Francovich&Bonifaci v. Italy (Cases C – 6&9/90)[1991] ECR I-5357, [1993] 2
CMLR 66.
6 Van Gend en Loos v. Nederlandse Administratie der Belastingen (Case 26/62)
[1963] ECR 1, [1963] CMLR 105.

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