European Union – Employment. The Court of Justice of the European Union gave a preliminary ruling in which it decided, among other things, that art 7(2) of Directive (EC) 2000/78, read in the light of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and in conjunction with the general principle of equal treatment enshrined in arts 20 and 21 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, should be construed as allowing legislation of a member state, such as that at issue in the main proceedings, which conferred on employees with certain disabilities specific advance protection in the event of dismissal, without conferring such protection on civil servants with the same disabilities, unless it had been established that there had been an infringement of the principle of equal treatment, that being a matter for the referring court to determine.