Here’s another example of an asterisk search in Google:

die zwingenden Vorgaben der Richtlinie

The problem is Vorgaben. I usually translate Vorgaben as requirements, but am not really happy with this.

Search:

the mandatory * of the directive

Here are some of the ghits:

requirements
provisions
standards
character
implementation
date
rules

I quite like provisions, although looking at all the examples in my current text, requirements might fit best after all.

Normally I would not search for a solution to Vorgaben in this way, but here I know this expression relates to EU law and there must be an English equivalent.

Of course, I could search the EU website, or I could download and install the huge EU translation memory recently provided. But the thing is, if the expression is contained in a judgment, I know that there will be a number of different translations, not necessarily all good. And I might just as well save the effort and use Google.

If you want more EU hits, add site:eu or site:europa/eu