European Union – Social security. The Court of Justice of the European Union gave a preliminary ruling, deciding that Regulation No 1408/71 (EC) 1408/71 (on the application of social security schemes to employed persons and their families moving within the Community) should be interpreted as meaning that levies on income from assets, such as those at issue in the main proceedings, had, when they contributed to the financing of compulsory social security schemes, a direct and relevant link with some of the branches of social security listed in art 4 of that regulation and thus fell within the scope of the regulation, even though those levies were imposed on the income from assets of taxable persons, irrespective of the pursuit by them of any professional activity.