THE EUROPEAN Court of Justice (ECJ) has declared illegal national rules denying trainee employees expenses payments for travel in a foreign European Union (EU) member country, which would be payable for journeys in their home state. Judges ruled that this would break Article 48 of the Treaty on European Union, guaranteeing the freedom of movement of workers. The case involved a German trainee civil service lawyer who completed part of his training in Britain, but who was denied travel expenses by the region of North-Rhine Westphalia travel for the part of his journey that took him outside Germany.