Following the interim decision of the Advocate General (see LELR 7), the European Court of Justice has held in Palacios de la Villa v Cortefiel Servicios SA that member states can introduce mandatory retirement ages under the EU Equal Treatment Directive.
Although it accepted that a mandatory retirement age fell within the scope of the directive, it said this was justified because it was introduced with the aim of promoting employment. It was therefore a proportionate means of achieving the legitimate social aim of promoting employment opportunities and reducing unemployment.
We will provide a full case summary of the judgement in a future LELR.
To download the decision, go to:
http://curia.europa.eu/jurisp/cgi-bin/form.pl?lang=EN&Submit=Rechercher$docrequire=alldocs&numaff=C-411/05&datefs=&datefe=&nomusuel=&domaine=&mots=&resmax=100