17According to the case-law of the Court of Justice, in the context of a recruitment procedure an applicant may, in an action challenging steps in such procedure, contest the legality of earlier steps which are closely linked to them (see in particular Ley ν Commission, Joined Cases 12/64 and 29/64 [1965] ECR 107, and Sergio and Others, cited above, paragraph 15). As the Court of Justice stated, in such a procedure applicants cannot be expected to bring as many actions as the number of acts which may have affected them adversely (see in particular Ley, cited above).