Professor Takis Tridimas:

Article 24 operates at a different level. As far as the relationship between EU law and international law is concerned, from the perspective of EU law, the European Union is bound by customary international law. Every provision of EU law should be interpreted so as to comply with obligations arising from international law. These are the two fundamental principles. As far as Article 24 is concerned, it is a concession to the member states. They can restrict the free movement of goods from third countries on grounds of public policy. That is understood narrowly because the European Union has an interest not to allow the member states to invoke liberally the principle of public policy, but for the regions we have put in the successive opinions we believe that here it is possible for a country, a member state, to limit-----