Brussels, 28/01/2010 (Agence Europe) - In line with Article 260 of the treaty on the functioning of the EU, the European Commission, on Thursday 28 January, sent a letter of formal notice to Greece for its failure to take concrete measures following a Court of Justice of the European Union ruling last year on the pensionable age for civil servants (case C-559/07). The Court found that current Greek provisions, which include differences in the pensionable age for male and female civil servants, violate the principle of equal pay. The Commission has, therefore, initiated infringement proceedings.
In a press release, the Commission says that on 26 March 2009, the Court of Justice ruled that Greece's civil and military service pension scheme is discriminatory in that it applies different pensionable ages to women and men. In general, under the Greek scheme it is necessary to complete at least 25 years of service before being able to retire. However, female public servants and women working in military service are treated differently. For example, married women and women with children are allowed to retire earlier than married men and men with children.
Infringement procedures consist of three stages: (1) the letter of formal notice giving the state concerned two months to reply; (2) the reasoned opinion to the state concerned for failure to observe European legislation; the state has two months in which to make its reply; (3) referral by the Commission to the Court of Justice if the state fails to satisfactorily reply within the two months. If the state fails to implement a Court ruling, the Commission can ask the Court to impose a fine on that state.
The Commission also sent reasoned opinions to: - Sweden over health and safety controls; - Italy and the United Kingdom for failure to submit national transposition measures relating to directive 2006/54/EC (banning gender discrimination in employment and occupation); - Poland for incorrectly implementing EU rules prohibiting discrimination based on religion of belief, disability, age or sexual orientation (directive 2000/78/EC).
The Commission decided to close infringement procedures opened against: - Luxembourg, for failure to communicate national measures after the Commission was informed of the steps taken by the Luxembourg authorities to transpose directive 2006/54/EC; - Hungary, with regard to directive 200/78/EC, it legislation now being in line with EU requirements; - the Czech Republic, since it has transposed European rules on gender equality in occupational social security schemes. (G.B./transl.rt)