This case could prove to be an important one from the Court of Justice of the EU, concerning as it does the rights of fathers to take parental leave to look after a child, regardless of whether or not the mother is working. 

The case involved a Greek judge who wished to avail of the state's condition for judges/civil servants in Greece that up to 9 months' paid parental leave could be taken to look after a child. However, the court noted that although a father exercising the profession of judge is entitled, in principle, to parental leave to bring up a child, he could not benefit from it if his wife does not work or exercise any profession. In the present case, Mr Maïstrellis’s wife, as he himself stated, was not in work. The one exception to this rule is when the civil servant's wife is too sick to look after the child. 

The question put to the CJEU was:

‘Must the provisions of Directive 96/34 and Directive 2006/54, in so far as they are applicable, be interpreted as precluding national regulations, such as the contested provision of the third sentence of Article 53(3) of the Civil Service Code, providing that if the civil servant’s wife does not work or exercise any profession the male spouse is not entitled to parental leave, unless it is considered that due to a serious illness or injury the wife is unable to meet the needs related to the upbringing of the child?’

The CJEU considered the Greek code to be discriminatory on grounds of sex:

"Although the first sentence of Article 53(3) of the Civil Service Code provides that a father exercising the profession of civil servant is not entitled to parental leave for childcare in a situation where his wife does not work or exercise any profession, unless it is considered that due to a serious illness or injury the wife is unable to meet the needs related to the upbringing of the child, that provision, by contrast, does not, for a mother exercising the profession of civil servant, provide for such an exclusion relating to the employment status of her husband. Moreover, the order for reference does not refer to any other provision of national law that establishes such a condition for mothers who are civil servants."

Further, such a rule, "... is liable to perpetuate a traditional distribution of the roles of men and women by keeping men in a role subsidiary to that of women in relation to the exercise of their parental duties..."

The CJEU concluded that denying a male civil servants is contrary to EU law:

"Having regard to all of the foregoing considerations, the answer to the question referred is that the provisions of Directives 96/34 and 2006/54 must be interpreted as precluding national provisions under which a civil servant is not entitled to parental leave in a situation where his wife does not work or exercise any profession, unless it is considered that due to a serious illness or injury the wife is unable to meet the needs related to the upbringing of the child."
http://www.bailii.org/eu/cases/EUECJ/2015/C22214.html