C —The Commission argues in particular as follows:Since the Court has approved the proposition that individual rights can arise both under provisions laying down a duty to act and under provisions laying down a duty to refrain from acting, the Commission concludes that the distinction between ‘legitimate interest’ and ‘subjective right’ is alien to Community law.The Commission refers to the judgment of the Court of 3 April 1968 (Case 28/67, Molkerei-Zentrale, [1968] E.C.R.), according to which:— arguments ‘based on rules of national law cannot prevail over the rules of law laid down by the Treaty’;— the Treaty ‘does not restrict the powers of competent national courts to apply, from among the various procedures available under national law, those which are appropriate for the purpose of protecting individual rights conferred by Community law’.After proceeding to an analysis of Articles 36, 224 and 226 of the Treaty, the Commission concludes that these provisions approve exceptions which are to be strictly construed, and that therefore they cannot be used to deny the direct effect of the rule to which they make exceptions.
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