Judgment — ECLI:EU:T:2003:308
Date: 2003-11-20
Language of the case: German
Court formation: Third Chamber
Based on: Merger Treaty (1965)
Subject matter: Staff regulations and employment conditions - EC
Concepts: Scope of judicial review;European Central Bank
Procedure: Staff cases - unfounded;Staff cases - inadmissible;Staff cases - successful

SUMMARY - CASE T-63/02 
Held: The pay slips sent on 13 July 2001 to the applicants, staff 
of the European Central Bank (ECB), for the month of 
July 2001 are annulled in so far as the ECB failed to 
consult the Staff Committee when adopting the salary 
adjustment for the year 2001. The remainder of the action 
is dismissed. The European Central Bank shall pay the 
costs. 
Summary 
1. Officials - Members of staff of the European Central Bank - Pay - Annual pay 
adjustment - Consultation of the Staff Committee - Obligation of the 
administration 
(Conditions of Employment for Staff of the European Central Bank, Arts 45 and 46) 
2. Officials - Members of staff of the European Central Bank - Representation -
Staff Committee - Consultation mandatory - Justification 
(Conditions of Employment for Staff of the European Central Bank, Art. 46) 
3. Officials - Members of staff of the European Central Bank - Pay - Method of 
calculation for annual salary adjustment - Criteria - Discretion of the 
administration - Judicial review - Limits 
(Conditions of Employment for Staff of the European Central Bank, Art. 13) 
4. Officials - Members of staff of the European Central Bank - Actions -
Subject-matter - Issue of directions to the administration - Inadmissible - Dispute 
of a financial nature — Unlimited jurisdiction 
(Conditions of Employment for Staff of the European Central Bank, Art. 42) 
I-A - 292 
CERATOGLI AND POLONI v ECB 
1. Article 46 of the Conditions of Employment for Staff of the European Central 
Bank must be interpreted as meaning that the Staff Committee must be consulted in 
the case of any measure dealing with the service rules and connected with any of 
the fields referred to in Article 45 of those Conditions of Employment, including 
staff remuneration. Unless it is to undermine the effectiveness of that obligation, the 
administration must comply with it wherever consultation of the Staff Committee is 
such as to have an influence on the substance of the measure to be adopted. 
Thus, the salary adjustment for 2001, which was a measure of general application 
which affected the remuneration of all staff of the Bank even if it was covered by 
the method for implementing the general salary adjustments for the years 1999 to 
2001, had to be the subject of such consultation. 
(see paras 20. 21. 23. 25. 27, 33) 
See: T-192/99 Dunnett and Others v EIB [2001] ECR II-813. para. 90 
2. The scope of the obligation to consult the Staff Committee laid down in 
Article 46 of the Conditions of Employment for Staff of the European Central Bank 
must be assessed in the light of its aims. Firstly, the consultation is designed to offer 
all members of staff, through the intervention of the Staff Committee as the 
representative of their common interests, the possibility of expressing their views 
before measures of general application relating to them are adopted or amended. 
Secondly, compliance with that obligation is in the interests both of individual 
members of staff and of the administration, since it is likely to prevent each member 
of staff from having to lodge an individual administrative complaint in order to raise 
the possibility of errors. Such consultation, in being able to prevent the filing of a 
series of complaints on the same grievance, thereby also serves the interest of sound 
administration. 
(see para. 24) 
I-A - 293 
SUMMARY - CASE T-63/02 
3. In providing for the Governing Council to adopt, on a proposal from the 
Executive Board, general salary adjustments with effect from 1 July each year, 
Article 13 of the Conditions of Employment for Staff of the European Central Bank 
does not lay down any criteria for making salary adjustments and, in particular, 
does not require those adjustments to take account of changes in the cost of living 
in the Land of Hesse or in Frankfurt-am-Main. 
Article 13 of the Conditions of Employment has therefore conferred on the 
Governing Council a broad discretion against which the Court cannot act unless 
there has been a manifest error or a misuse of powers. 
In providing, in the method used for calculating general salary adjustments, for 
salaries to be adjusted in step with the average increase in salaries paid by the 
national central banks of 15 Member States and by the Bank for International 
Settlements (BIS), the Governing Council has introduced objectively justifiable 
criteria whose appropriateness cannot be questioned by the Community judicature. 
(see paras 46-49) 
See: T-544/93 and T-566/93 Abello and Others v Commission [1995] ECR-SC I-A-271 
and II-815, para. 56 
4. It is clear from the second paragraph of Article 42 of the Conditions of 
Employment for Staff of the European Central Bank that the jurisdiction of the 
Court of First Instance in disputes between the European Central Bank and its staff 
is restricted to reviewing the legality of the measure or decision, unless the dispute 
is of a financial nature, in which case the Court has unlimited jurisdiction. 
I-A - 294 
CERAFOGLI AND POLONI v ECB 
However, it is not for the Court to make findings of fact or to address directions to 
the European Central Bank. 
(see para. 56) 
See: T-27/00 Staff Committee of the ECB and Others v ECB [2000] ECR-SC I-A-217 and 
II-987, para. 37; T-20/01 Cerafogli and Others v ECB [2001] ECR-SC I-A-147 and 
II-675, paras 80 and 81; T-333/99 X v ECB [2001] ECR II-3021, para. 48 
I-A - 295