1. Community legislative acts shall be drafted clearly, simply
and precisely. The drafting of a legislative act must be: -
clear, easy to understand and unambiguous; - simple, concise,
containing no unnecessary elements; - precise, leaving no
uncertainty in the mind of the reader. This common-sense
principle is also the expression of general principles of law,
such as: - the equality of citizens before the law, in the sense
that the law should be accessible and comprehensible for all; -
legal certainty, in that it should be possible to foresee how
the law will be applied. The principle is particularly important
in respect of Community legislative acts, which must fit into a
system which is not only complex, but also multicultural and
multilingual (see Guideline 5). The aim in applying this
principle is twofold: first, to render Community legislation
more comprehensible; second, to avoid disputes resulting from
poor drafting. Provisions that are not clear may be interpreted
restrictively by the Community court