The right to paid annual leave is an important and much discussed issue in labour law. This article focuses on the European legal bases and the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), but also considers comparative regulations from individual states. It adopts a purposive approach to analyse selected issues and put forward proposals. Such issues include the design and legal nature of the right to annual leave, the obligation of the employer to inform the employee, opportunities to dispose of the right to leave, accrual and scope of the right to leave without work being performed, carrying annual leave over to the next calendar year and the behaviour of the employee during the period of leave.