European Union – Employment. Clause 5 of the framework agreement on fixed-term work, set out in the Annex to Council Directive (EC) 1999/70 should be interpreted as precluding national legislation pursuant to which the common law rules governing employment relationships and intended to penalise the misuse of successive fixed-term contracts by the automatic transformation of the fixed-term contract into a contract of indefinite duration if the employment relationship went beyond a specific date were not applicable to the sector of activity of operatic and orchestral foundations, where there was no other effective measure in the domestic legal system penalising abuses identified in that sector. The Court of Justice of the European Union so held in proceedings brought by the applicant ballet dancer concerning a request that her successive fixed-term employment contracts concluded for services carried out between certain years be reclassified as an employment relationship of an indefinite duration.