Judgment — ECLI:EU:C:2017:767
Date: 2017-10-18
Language of the case: Greek
Court formation: First Chamber
Subject matter: Social Policy
Procedure: Reference for a preliminary ruling
Origin: Greece

Summary — Judgment of the Court (First Chamber), 18 October 2017 1. Social policy — Male and female workers — Access to employment and working conditions — Equal treatment — Directive 76/207 — Scope — Notion of ‘conditions for access to employment, self-employment or to occupation’ — Recruitment conditions — Candidates’ admission to the competition subject to minimum physical height requirement — Included (Council Directive 76/207, as amended by Directive 2002/73, Arts 1(1) and 3(1)(a)) 2. Social policy — Male and female workers — Access to employment and working conditions — Equal treatment — Directive 76/207 — National law making candidates’ admission to the competition for entry to the police school of that Member State subject to a requirement that they are of a physical height of at least 1.70m — Unlawful — No justification — Verification by the national court (Council Directive 76/207, as amended by Directive 2002/73) 1. See the text of the decision. (see paras 21-23, 25) 2. The provisions of Council Directive 76/207/EEC of 9 February 1976 on the implementation of the principle of equal treatment for men and women as regards access to employment, vocational training and promotion, and working conditions, as amended by Directive 2002/73/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 September 2002, must be interpreted as precluding a law of a Member State, such as that at issue in the main proceedings, which makes candidates’ admission to the competition for entry to the police school of that Member State subject, whatever their sex, to a requirement that they are of a physical height of at least 1.70m, since that law works to the disadvantage of a far greater number of women compared with men and that law does not appear to be either appropriate or necessary to achieve the legitimate objective that it pursues, which it is for the national court to determine. In that regard, while it is true that the exercise of police functions involving the protection of persons and goods, the arrest and custody of offenders and the conduct of crime prevention patrols may require the use of physical force requiring a particular physical aptitude, the fact remains that certain police functions, such as providing assistance to citizens or traffic control, do not clearly require the use of significant physical force (see, to that effect, the judgment of 13 November 2014, Vital Pérez, C‑416/13, EU:C:2014:2371, paragraphs 39 and 40). Furthermore, even if all the functions carried out by the Greek police required a particular physical aptitude, it would not appear that such an aptitude is necessarily connected with being of a certain minimum height and that shorter persons naturally lack that aptitude. In any event, the aim pursued by the law at issue in the main proceedings could be achieved by measures that are less disadvantageous to women, such as a preselection of candidates to the competition for entry into Schools for Police Officers and Policemen based on specific tests allowing their physical ability to be assessed (see paras 38, 39, 42, 44, operative part)