European Union – Employment. Article 1(1) of Directive (EC) 2001/23 should be interpreted as meaning that that directive applied to a situation in which a contracting entity had terminated the contract for the provision of services relating to the security of buildings concluded with one undertaking and had, for the purposes of the provision of those services, concluded a new contract with another undertaking, which took on, pursuant to a collective agreement, the majority, in terms of their number and skills, of the staff whom the first undertaking had assigned to the performance of those services, in so far as the operation was accompanied by the transfer of an economic entity between the two undertakings concerned. The Court of Justice so held in a preiminary ruling in proceedings concerning the payment to the first applicant of shortfalls in remuneration and discretionary social benefits for certain years.