37It is settled case-law that the principle of the protection of legitimate expectations is a general principle of EU law. That principle has been progressively accepted into the EU legal order by case-law, which has described it as a ‘superior rule of law’ for the protection of individuals (judgment of 14 May 1975, CNTA v Commission, 74/74, EU:C:1975:59, paragraph 44), as ‘one of the fundamental principles of the Community’ (judgment of 7 June 2005, VEMW and Others, C‑17/03, EU:C:2005:362, paragraph 73) and as a ‘general principle’ (judgment of 4 October 2001, Italy v Commission, C‑403/99, EU:C:2001:507, paragraph 35). It is considered to be the corollary of the principle of legal certainty, which requires that EU legislation must be certain and its application foreseeable by persons subject to it, in that it seeks, where rules are altered, to ensure the protection of situations legitimately entered into by one or more natural or legal persons in particular (see, to that effect, judgment of 18 May 2000, Rombi and Arkopharma, C‑107/97, EU:C:2000:253, paragraph 66 and the case-law cited, and the Opinion of Advocate General Léger in joined cases Belgium and Forum 187 v Commission, C‑182/03 and C‑217/03, EU:C:2006:89, paragraph 367).