The Francovich ruling of the Court of Justice (19 November 1991) established the principle of state liability to individuals for damage that they might have suffered because of that Member State’s violation of European law.
In this case, Francovich and Bonifaci, two Italian nationals to whom bankrupt employers owed salaries, took Italy to court, claiming the state of not having transposed into national law a European Directive protecting employees if their employers went insolvent (the Directive imposed on the States an obligation to enact provisions guaranteeing payment). The Italian courts referred the issue to the Court of Justice. The Court of Justice indicated that the purpose of the Directive was to confer on employees rights which they had been deprived of because of a failure on the part of Italy, which had not yet transposed the Directive into its law. Through this ruling, the Court opens to European citizens the possibility of an action for damages against the State that infringes European law.