Although the EU Treaty provides that directives are addressed only to member states, the European Court of Justice has held that directives may create rights for individuals. As long ago as 1974, the Court held that an individual may rely on rights arising from a directive which has not been implemented into national law in certain cases. The court said that:
'Wherever the provisions of a directive appear, as far as their subject matter is concerned, to be unconditional and sufficiently precise, these provisions may, in the absence of implementing measures adopted within the prescribed period, be relied on as against any national provision which is incompatible with the directive or in so far as the provisions define rights which individuals are able to assert against the States1.'
An individual or company may
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