Year 12s: what will be the first way you research your future options? >>

Problem Question Help! EU Law

Hello,

ive got a practice problem question to complete. It comes in two halves. here are the facts for one half. If anyone could help with the relevant law/cases, it would be much appreciated :smile:

Eva is a spanish national, living in the UK with her husband.
Has worked for several years at a company that makes computing equipment for the Civil Service.
She is told that she is being made redundant due to recession.
However the letter also states that only UK nationals are entitled to redundancy pay (sum of one weeks pay for each year served)
Due to her spanish nationality, she is excluded from this by the Fictitious ''Redundancy Payments {Exceptions for specific nationalities} Act 2009''

A fictitious directive provides that workers of at least 2 years continuous service (which Eva is) are entitled to at least one MONTHS pay for each year of service.
Directive should have been implemented by july 2009 but due to conflict with UK law it hasnt been.

Id be grateful for any help

Thanks :smile:

Reply 1

shadowsintherain

I very much hope this isn't too late. But this is a stock problem question of the UK not implementing a directive in time. I won't do it all for you but you need to consider State Liability. Basically, in Francovich v Italian Republic, it was held that where (i) the result prescribed by the Directive entails a grant of rights to individuals and; (ii) the contents of these rights are identifiable and; (iii) there is a causal link between breach of the obligation and the loss suffered, damages are available. This test was elaborated (don't mention what I just said in the problem but you can if you are not up to the word limit - this shouldn't be a problem anyway!) in Brasserie du Pecheur where it was said that damages are available where: (i) infringed law was intended to give rights to individuals; (ii) the state's breach was serious; and (iii) there is a causal link. So it's similar but (ii) is modified. For your purposes, look at Dillenkofer, which says that if a state does not implement a directive within its time frame this is a serious enough breach. The other two criteria seem to be satisfied.

Good luck.

Reply 2

Cozzmic

Thank you for your reply.

I'm a bit confused. Do directives have direct effect? Because van gend en loos says for something to have direct effect it must not require any further implementation, which I think directives do?

so in this scenario, a directive has not been implemented in time, via direct effect, can it be relied on?

Thank you

Reply 3

jacketpotato

Directives CAN have direct effect. It doesn't follow that they will. This is an important area of EU law, there will be a chapter about it in your textbooks, and I've done some fairly concise/comprehensive posts on this on TSR if you do an advanced search.

Reply 4

seems121

Imagine that Directive 2013/999 has been adopted in response to concerns aboutlow levels of safety protection offered to bus and coach passengers within theEuropean Union. This states that “all buses and coaches used by the public musthave passenger seatbelts fitted”. The Directive had to be implemented by 1st April2015.

The following situations have arisen:

a) In November 2014, Danielle was injured in a crash in Paris involving a coachshe was travelling on. The coach was not fitted with seatbelts and thisexacerbated her injuries. France implemented the Directive on 15th March2015. Before this, no French law had existed in this area.

b) In June 2015, Pedro was thrown from his seat when the local bus he wastravelling on crashed in Barcelona. He was injured as a result. The bus was notfitted with seatbelts. Spain had not implemented the Directive and there was noSpanish law covering this situation.

c) In August 2015, Sean was injured in Belfast while travelling to work on aminibus provided by the Belfast City Council mini-bus shuttle. The United EU LawLaw School Sept 2014 2Kingdom had implemented the Directive on 3rd March 2015 in the PublicTransport (Seat Belts) Regulations 2015. These specifically exclude minibuses.

Advise Danielle, Pedro and Sean as to whether or not they are entitled to aremedy under the Directive which they can enforce before their respectivenational courts.

someone please help structure this answer