Opinion of the Advocate General — ECLI:EU:C:2002:268
Date: 2002-04-25
Based on: Merger Treaty (1965)
Subject matter: Staff regulations and employment conditions - EC
Procedure: Appeal - unfounded;Appeal - inadmissible;Staff cases

Summary of the Judgment 
1. Appeals — Pleas in law — Iticorrect assessment of the facts — Inadmissible — 
Review by the Court of justice of assessment of evidence — Excluded except where 
the clear sense of the evidence has been distorted 
(Art. 225 EC; EC Statute of the Court of Justice, Art. 51) 
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SUMMARY — CASE C-184/01 P 
2. Officials — Interinstitutional transfer — Promotion upon transfer — Condition 
(Staff Regulations, Art. 8, paras 2 and 3) 
1. Under Article 225 EC and Article 51 of 
the Statute of the Court of Justice, an 
appeal lies on points of law only and 
therefore the Court of First Instance 
alone has jurisdiction to find and 
appraise the facts, save where the 
factual inaccuracy of its findings results 
from the documents in the case before 
it. The appraisal of the facts by the 
Court of First Instance does not con­
stitute, save where the clear sense of the 
evidence produced before it is dis­
torted, a question of law which is 
subject, as such, to review by the Court 
of Justice. 
(see para. 40) 
2. A transfer of an official to the institu­
tion to which he is seconded does not, 
under Article 8 of the Staff Regu­
lations, in principle and of itself, under 
the general rule in the second para­
graph thereof, affect the status of the 
official concerned, in particular as 
regards his grade and seniority in step. 
That rule may only be deviated from in 
the situation that is exceptional, and 
also derogates from the general rule, 
contemplated in the third paragraph of 
Article 8, where the transfer requires 
the institution to which the official is 
transferred to make the transfer 
coincide with a promotion. The appli­
cation of the rule in the third paragraph 
of Article 8 is subject, in particular, to 
the condition that the transfer involves 
establishment in a higher grade than 
that occupied by the official in his 
institution of origin. 
(see paras 58-61) 
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