1.

Are Article 12(a) and recital 8 of Directive 2003/88/EC (1) and Articles 20 and 31 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union to be interpreted as precluding national legislation (in this case, Article 187 of the Zakon za Ministerstvoto na vatreshnite raboti (Law on the Ministry of the Interior)) which, in not allowing the shorter length of night work as compared to that of day work in accordance with the general provisions governing private-sector workers to apply also to public-sector workers, such as police officers and firefighters performing shift and night work (civil servants within the meaning of Article 142(1)(1) of that Law), leads to a difference in treatment, indicated as follows, without that difference in treatment relating to a legally permitted aim, that is to say:

A group of public-sector workers entrusted with particularly important tasks to do with maintaining public order and protecting the population (in the present case, police officers and firefighters, pursuant to Article 142(1)(1) of the Law on the Ministry of the Interior, who perform shift and night work) is disadvantaged

2.

Are Article 12(a) and recital 8 of Directive 2003/88/EC and Articles 20 and 31 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union to be interpreted as precluding the application of binding national case-law (such as, in the present case, interpretative judgment No 1 of the General Assembly of the Civil Chamber of the Varhoven kasatsionen sad na Republika Bulgaria (Supreme Court of Cassation of the Republic of Bulgaria) of 15 March 2023 in Interpretative Case No 1/2020), if the application thereof would lead to a result incompatible with EU law, that is to say, to the difference in treatment described in the first question, which is not based on an objective and reasonable criterion, that is to say, it does not relate to a legally permitted aim and is not proportionate to that aim?