Judgment — ECLI:EU:T:2002:187
Date: 2002-07-11
Language of the case: French
Court formation: Fifth Chamber
Based on: Merger Treaty (1965)
Subject matter: Staff regulations and employment conditions - EC
Concepts: Administrative complaint;Organization of departments;Mandatory nature;Specific cases of acts having adverse effect;Recruitment
Procedure: Staff cases - unfounded;Staff cases - inadmissible

SUMMARY - JOINED CASES T-137/99 AND T-18/00 
Summary 
1. Officials - Actions - Act adversely affecting an official — Definition -
Contract of employment of a member of the temporary staff - Initial contract where 
extended unaltered 
(Staff Regulations, Arts 90(2) and 91(1)) 
2. Officials - Actions - Prior administrative complaint - Time-limits - Matter 
of public policy - Point from which time starts to run - Date of signature of the 
temporary staff contract 
(Staff Regulations, Arts 90(2) and 91) 
3. Officials - Organisation of departments - Posting of staff - Administration's 
discretion - Limits - Interests of the service - Observance of the principle of 
equivalence of posts 
(Conditions of Employment of Other Servants, Art. 2) 
4. Officials - Distinction between 'post' and 'job' - Permanent post - Concept 
5. Officials - Members of the temporary staff - Engagement - Conclusion of a 
contract to fill temporarily a permanent post — Condition 
(Conditions of Employment of Other Servants, Art. 2) 
1. The administrative complaint and the legal action which follows it must both be 
directed against an 'act adversely affecting' the applicant within the meaning of 
Articles 90(2) and 91(1) of the Staff Regulations, the act in question being that 
which directly and immediately affects his or her legal situation. Where the nature 
of a temporary staff contract was expressly agreed upon in the initial contract of 
employment, in the absence of any alteration of that characterisation, in particular 
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MARTINEZ PARAMO AND OTHERS v COMMISSION 
when that contract was extended, the initial contract of employment must be 
regarded as the act adversely affecting the applicant. 
(see paras 45, 46) 
See: 204/85 Stroghili v Court of Auditors [19871 ECR 389. para. 6; 302/85 
Pressler-Hoeft v Court of Auditors [1987] ECR 513; 329/85 Castagnoli v Commission 
[1987] ECR 3281: 289/87 Giubilini v Commission [1988] ECR 1735; 95/87 Contini v 
Commission [1988] ECR 2537; T-14/91 Weyrich v Commission [1991] ECR II-235. para. 
35: T-173/95 Biedermann and Others v Court of Auditors [1998] ECR-SC I-A-273 and 
II-831. para. 39 
2. The time-limits prescribed in Articles 90 and 91 of the Staff Regulations for 
lodging complaints and bringing proceedings are intended to ensure the clarity and 
certainty of legal situations and are a matter of public policy, so that they cannot be 
left to the discretion of the parties or the Court. For an action for annulment to be 
admissible, the complaint must have been lodged within the period of three months 
following the act adversely affecting the applicant, laid down by Article 90(2) of the 
Staff Regulations. 
With regard to the determination of the point in time at which the act adversely 
affecting the applicant arose, that is to say, the fixing of the date from which the 
time-limit must be calculated, the contract produces its effects and, therefore, is 
capable of adversely affecting the member of the temporary staff, from the date of 
its signature, provided that all the details of the contract are fixed, including its 
effective date and date of expiry. The period for lodging a complaint in due time in 
accordance with Article 90(2) of the Staff Regulations must therefore be calculated 
from the date of signature. 
(see paras 54-56) 
See: Castagnoli v Commission. cited above, para. 10; T-122/89 F. v Commission [1990] 
ECR II-517. para. 23 
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SUMMARY - JOINED CASES T-137/99 AND T-18/00 
3. Article 2 of the Conditions of Employment of Other Servants does not refer to 
the duties or tasks which the institution must or may assign either to staff engaged 
under Article 2(a) or to staff engaged under Article 2(b). 
In that regard, it must be borne in mind that the Community institutions have a 
broad discretion to organise their departments to suit the tasks entrusted to them and 
to post the staff available to them in the light of such tasks, on condition, however, 
that the staff are posted in the interests of the service and in conformity with the 
principle of equivalence of posts. Such discretion is indispensable in order to 
achieve effective organisation of work and to adapt that organisation to varying 
needs. 
(see paras 93-95) 
See: 124/78 List v Commission [1979] ECR 2499; 60/80 Kindermann v Commission 
[1981] ECR 1329; 176/82 Nebe v Commission [1983] ECR 2475; 69/83 Lux v Court of 
Auditors [1984] ECR 2447; 19/87 Hecq v Commission [1988] ECR 1681; T-108/89 
Scheuer v Commission [1990] ECR II-411, para. 37 
4. The question of the existence of a given 'job', as opposed to a 'post', falls within 
the competence of the institution with respect to its departmental organisation, 
whereas the question as to the existence of a vacant post depends upon whether 
there is, amongst the total number of permanent posts set out in the budget, a post 
that is not filled. The concept of a permanent post covers only the posts expressly 
prescribed as 'permanent', or described in a similar manner, in the budget of the 
Community. That concept is therefore a budgetary concept and not an operational 
concept relating to the nature of the duties performed in that post. 
(see para. 96) 
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MARTÍNEZ PÁRAMO AND OTHERS v COMMISSION 
See: 18/63 Schmitz v EEC [1964] ECR 85; C-398/93 P Rasmussen v Commission [1994] 
ECR I-4043, para. 27 
5. It is clear from Article 2 of the Conditions of Employment of Other Servants that 
a contract to fill temporarily a permanent post such as those provided for in 
Article 2(b) of the Conditions of Employment of Other Servants may not be 
concluded if the institution does not have available a vacant permanent post provided 
for beforehand by the budget. 
(see para. 97) 
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