European Union – Employment. The Court of Justice of the European Union gave a preliminary ruling, deciding that the principle of non-discrimination on grounds of age enshrined in art 21 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union and given specific expression by Directive (EC) 2000/78 should be interpreted as not precluding national legislation under which an end-of-contract payment, paid in addition to an employee's salary on the expiry of a fixed-term employment contract where the contractual relationship was not continued in the form of a contract for an indefinite period, was not payable in the event that the contract was concluded with a young person for a period during his school holidays or university vacation.