Case C-155/25: Action brought on 21 February 2025 – European Commission v Italian Republic
Date: 2025-02-21
Institutions: Court of Justice
Subjects: educational institution, equal treatment, full-time employment, labour law, national implementing measure, public education, public service employee, recruitment, temporary employment, work contract








C_202502184EN.000101.fmx.xml












Official Journal of the European Union


EN
C series













C/2025/2184


22.4.2025






Action brought on 21 February 2025 – European Commission v Italian Republic


(Case C-155/25)

(C/2025/2184)
Language of the case: Italian

Parties


Applicant: European Commission (represented by: D. Recchia, S. Delaude, Agents)

Defendant: Italian Republic

Forms of order sought

The Commission claims that the Court should:






—


declare that, by not having provided measures to prevent the abusive use of successive fixed-term contracts relating to replacement administrative, technical and auxiliary personnel at State schools, the Italian Republic has failed to fulfil its obligations under clause 5 of the framework agreement;










—


order the Italian Republic to pay the costs.





Pleas in law and main arguments

On 21 February 2025, the Commission lodged an application before the Court of Justice seeking a declaration that, by not having provided measures to prevent the abusive use of successive fixed-term contracts relating to replacement administrative, technical and auxiliary personnel (‘ATA personnel’) at State schools, the Italian Republic has failed to fulfil its obligations under clause 5 of the framework agreement (‘the framework agreement’) which appears in the annex to Council Directive 1999/70/EC of 28 June 1999 concerning the framework agreement on fixed-term work concluded by ETUC, UNICE and CEEP. (1)

In the Commission’s view, in the first place, the recruitment of ATA personnel on fixed-term contracts takes place without the applicable legislation providing objective reasons within the meaning of clause 5(1)(a) of the framework agreement: there are no flexibility requirements to justify recruitment of ATA personnel on fixed-term contracts or their renewal, the use of such contracts represents the ordinary method of recruitment and the time limit for granting tenure is as variable as it is uncertain.
In the second place, the Commission submits that the Italian legislation does not provide for measures to prevent the abusive use of fixed-term contracts, and thereby regulate the maximum duration of such contracts and the maximum number of permitted renewals, in breach of clause 5(1)(b) and (c) of the framework agreement.
In the third and last place, the Commission claims that the completion of a series of competitions in recent years does not constitute an equivalent legal measure to prevent abuse within the meaning of clause 5(1) of the framework agreement: such competitions do not prevent the abusive use of fixed-term employment contracts, their organisation is not subject to any time limit and the opportunities to be granted tenure depend on random and unforeseeable circumstances.


(1)  
            OJ 1999 L 175 p. 43.


ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/C/2025/2184/oj
ISSN 1977-091X (electronic edition)