The judgment of the Court of Justice of 26 March 2009 in Case C-559/07 adds between 5 to 17 years to the age at which female civil servants in Greece are eligible for retirement on the pretext of equalising the retirement age for men and women. It also considers that the public pension insurance system does not constitute a social security scheme but a professional insurance system, which means that there are no guarantees in respect of age limits, the level of pensions and benefits in general. The judgment paves the way for the privatisation of social security in the public and private sectors, while making employment relations more flexible, reducing the social security rights of men and women and exacerbating in the extreme the problems faced by working-class families.

What is the Commission's response to the storm of protests which have erupted among women, and among workers more generally, in the public and private sectors alike?