Order — ECLI:EU:T:2008:187
Date: 2008-06-10
Language of the case: French
Court formation: Appeals Chamber
Based on: Merger Treaty (1965)
Subject matter: Staff regulations and employment conditions - EC
Concepts: Principle of the protection of legitimate expectations;Legal certainty;Application form
Procedure: Appeal - unfounded;Staff cases;Action for damages

Summary 1. Officials – Principles – Protection of legitimate expectations 2. Officials – Competitions – Conditions for admission (Staff Regulations, Annex III, Arts 2 and 5) 1. The concept of excusable error which arises in the case-law on time-limits for appeals applies by analogy in relation to the mandatory time-limits for the submission of an act or document to the administration itself. That concept, pursuant to the principles of legal certainty and the protection of legitimate expectations, can concern only exceptional circumstances in which, in particular, the conduct of the administration, out of which the party’s error arose, has been, either alone or to a decisive extent, such as to give rise to a pardonable confusion in the mind of a party acting in good faith and exercising all the diligence required of a normally experienced person. (see paras 40-41) See: T‑12/90 Bayer v Commission [1991] ECR II‑219, para. 29 2. An application for a competition to join the European civil service, which clearly and unequivocally states that candidates must include proof of citizenship for the application to be valid, is not such as to mislead a candidate acting in good faith and exercising all the diligence required of a normally experienced person, who could not reasonably conclude that his application might be acceptable without such proof, even if the application document fails to refer to the provisions of the competition notice making this a requirement. (see paras 44-46)