The judgment of the Court of Justice of 13 November 2014 in Mario Vital Pérez v Ayuntamiento de Oviedo, C-416/13, EU:C:2014:2371, concerns a sensitive subject for me: age discrimination !
The Court held that Directive 2000/78/EC establishing a general framework for equal treatment in employment and occupation (OJ 2000 L 303, p. 16) precludes national legislation which sets at 30 years the maximum age for recruitment of local police officers.
Here’s what happened. Continue reading
Certain Member States were concerned about the so-called “welfare tourism”, i.e. the possibility of nationals of another Member State to enter their territory “solely” in order to claim benefits. Yesterday’s judgment in Case C-333/13 Dano comes to relieve those concerns.
In short the facts of the case can be summarised as follows. Ms Dano and her son, Romanian nationals, entered Germany and live in the city of Leipzig. Ms Dano receives child benefit for her son as well as another allowance paid out for a children, whose father’s identity is unknown (in total 317 Euro). In the background to the case, there is nothing to indicate that she has looked for a job in Germany. The case in the main proceedings was initiated when Ms Dano’s application for the grant of benefits by way of basic provision for jobseekers was rejected by the German administration (the child’s benefits are not at issue).
The Court of Justice gave its judgment in the preliminary reference Case C-507/12 Jessy Saint Prix v Secretary of State for Work and Pensionson 19 June 2014.
This case concerned a French teacher, resident in the UK and undertaking agency work during pregnancy. She stopped working 11 weeks before the expected date for the birth, and resumed work three months after the birth. She made a claim for Income Support (a form of social security benefit) for this period. The UK Government refused her claim, as under UK law Income Support is not granted to “persons from abroad”. Ms Saint Prix sought to challenge the Government’s decision before the UK courts, arguing that the UK legislation is contrary to EU law, and specifically to its obligations under Directive 2004/38/EC (the Citizenship Directive).
In this preliminary reference case coming from Germany, the Court of Justice (“CoJ”) applied the principle of non-discrimination on grounds of nationality enshrined in Article 18 TFEU to an interesting set of facts.
International Jet Management (“IJM”) is an airline company with its seat in Austria. It operates charter flights within the European Union (“EU”) but it also uses its fleet for flights from third countries to the EU. At the material time, the company held an operating licence and an air operator certificate (“AOC”) issued in Austria. Between December 2008 and March 2009, IJM operated private flights to Germany from Moscow, on six occasions, and Ankara, on one occasion.
EU litigation 