European Union—Employment—Framework agreement on parental leave

Court of Justice of the European Union (First Chamber) Judges Tizzano (President of the Chamber), Levits, Ilesic, Safjan and Berger (Rapporteur), 16 Sep 2010

Clause 2.1 of Council Directive (EC) 96/34 (on the framework agreement on parental leave) does not confer an individual right to parental leave on the child. Nor is it to be interpreted as requiring the birth of twins to confer entitlement to a number of periods of parental leave equal to the number of children born. It does however require member states to take due account of the particular needs of parents with twins. 

The claimant in the main proceedings was a public servant in Greece. In May 2007 she gave birth to twins. She was granted nine months’ paid parental leave from September 2007. Subsequently she applied for a second period of nine months’ paid parental leave for the second of her twins. That application was rejected and she appealed to the referring court.

The referring