Judgment — ECLI:EU:F:2008:105
Date: 2008-09-04
Language of the case: French
Court formation: Second Chamber
Based on: Merger Treaty (1965)
Subject matter: Staff regulations and employment conditions - EC
Concepts: Specific cases of acts having adverse effect;Recruitment
Procedure: Staff cases - inadmissible;Action for damages - inadmissible

Summary Officials – Actions – Act adversely affecting an official – Definition (Staff Regulations, Arts 90 and 91; Conditions of Employment of Other Servants, Art. 2(c)) Only acts producing binding legal effects capable of affecting, directly and individually, the interests of the parties concerned by bringing about a distinct change in their legal situation can be considered to affect them adversely. In that respect, any formal procedure of appointment or engagement to a post covered by the Staff Regulations or the Conditions of Employment leads to the adoption of an act which brings about a distinct change in the legal situation of a person who has submitted his candidature after the opening of that procedure, whether it is a decision on his appointment or engagement taken by the appointing authority or by the authority authorised to conclude contracts of employment of temporary staff, or whether it is a decision rejecting his candidature adopted by either of those authorities or by one of the bodies specified by the recruitment procedure. However, in respect of the engagement of legal secretaries within the Community courts, since no formal recruitment procedure has been opened, there are no candidatures other than that presented by the member of the Court of Justice concerned. An unsolicited candidature for such a post necessarily remains informal and cannot give rise to a judicial decision to reject it. The rejection of such a candidature does not therefore constitute an act adversely affecting an official. As a general rule, the engagement of a legal secretary does not lead to the opening of an official recruitment procedure, but is made exclusively by means of the proposal of a single name by the member of the Court of Justice concerned and by the acceptance or rejection of that name by the Court of Justice. That power of proposal is not governed by any legal rules, as the member concerned chooses freely the person whom he intends to propose, by the method which he considers appropriate. The fact that there is no systematic organisation of an official recruitment procedure for that category of temporary staff within the Community courts results from the relationship of trust between the staff concerned and the members of those courts to which they are assigned. Legal secretaries are recruited intuitu personae, the staff concerned being selected both for their professional and personal qualities and for their ability to adapt to the methods of working specific to the member concerned and those of the whole of his Chambers. (see paras 25, 26, 29-31) See: C-32/92 P Moat v Commission [1992] ECR I‑6379, para. 9; judgment of 10 January 2006 in C‑373/04 P Commission v Alvarez Moreno, not published in the ECR, para. 42; C-432/04 Commission v Cresson [2006] ECR I‑6387, para. 130 T-406/04 Bonnet v Court of Justice [2006] ECR-SC I‑A‑2‑213 and II‑A‑2‑1097, paras 31 to 33