C-427/06 Bartsch [2008] ECR I-7245

• A provision preventing a widow(er) from receiving a pension if they had been more than 15 years older or younger than their spouse would have breached the directive 2000/78 had it been created after that directive, but that the courts could not impose the anti-discrimination principle on actions that were not within the scope of Article 13 EC (non-discrimination against age), such as actions that were taken before the directive’s implementation deadline. 

Sharpston AG

• He suggested that, once the Framework Directive had been implemented, there was a framework (a national rule implementing a Directive) on which the general principles of Community law could bite. This had not been the case in 2004.

• Those general principles could then be enforced horizontally (in the private as well as the public sector), operating through the Framework Directive.

• The reasoning of a general enforceable principle in Mangold of non-discrimination was flawed - hence courts didn’t refer to decision in Palacios de la Villa nor Chacon Navas. 

RELATED CASES

• Werner Mangold v. Rüdiger Helm

• C-411/05 Palacios de la Villa

• Case C-13/05 Sonia Chacon Navas