27As noted by the referring court, national legislation such as that at issue in the main proceedings favours persons who undertake or finish such studies after their 18th birthday in so far as only those persons will benefit from the crediting of the periods of study they completed in an intermediate or secondary school before their entry into the federal civil service. Such legislation establishes a difference in treatment between persons based on the age at which they completed their school education. That criterion may even lead to a difference in treatment between two persons who have pursued the same studies, exclusively on the basis of their respective ages. Such a provision thus establishes a difference in treatment directly based on the criterion of age, within the meaning of Article 2(1) and (2)(a) of Directive 2000/78 (see, by analogy, judgment in Hütter, EU:C:2009:381, paragraph 38).
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