Judgment of the Court (Second Chamber) 16 June 1994

In Case C-132/93, REFERENCE to the Court under Article 177 of the EEC Treaty by the Arbeitsgericht (Labour Court) Elmshorn (Federal Republic of Germany) for a preliminary ruling in the proceedings pending before that court between

THE COURT (Second Chamber), composed of: G. F. Mancini, President of the Chamber (Rapporteur), F. A. Schockweiler and J. L. Murray, Judges, Advocate General: M. Darmon, Registrar: R. Grass,

after considering the written observations submitted on behalf of: the Federal Republic of Germany, by Ernst Röder, Ministerialrat in the Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs, and Claus-Dieter Quassowski, Regierungsdirektor in that same Ministry, acting as Agents, the Italian Republic, by Professor Luigi Ferrari Bravo, Head of the Department for Legal Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, acting as Agent, and Pier Giorgio Ferri, Avvocato dello Stato, the Commission of the European Communities, by Dimitrios Gouloussis, Legal Adviser, and Horstpeter Kreppel, a national official on secondment to the Commission's Legal Service, acting as Agents,

having regard to the report of the Judge-Rapporteur,

after hearing the Opinion of the Advocate General at the sitting on 10 March 1994,

gives the following

Judgment

Costs

1 Language of the case: German.