Judgment_paragraph 99 · Raffaella Mascolo and Others v Ministero dell’Istruzione, dell’Università e della Ricerca and Comune di Napoli (C-22/13, C-61/13, C-62/13, C-63/13, C-418/13)

99As to those submissions, whilst national legislation permitting the renewal of successive fixed-term employment contracts in order to replace staff pending the outcome of competitive selection procedures is capable of being justified by an objective reason, the actual application of that reason must be consistent with the requirements of the Framework Agreement, having regard to the particular features of the activity concerned and to the conditions under which it is carried out. When applying the relevant provision of national law, the competent authorities must therefore be in a position to identify objective and transparent criteria in order to verify whether the renewal of such contracts actually responds to a genuine need, is capable of achieving the objective pursued and is necessary for that purpose (see, to this effect, judgment in Kücük, EU:C:2012:39, paragraph 34 and the case-law cited).