Information;Judgment — ECLI:EU:T:2019:748
Date: 2019-10-16
Language of the case: French
Court formation: Fifth Chamber
Based on: Merger Treaty (1965)
Subject matter: Staff regulations and employment conditions - EC
Procedure: Staff cases - unfounded

Judgment of the General Court (Fifth Chamber) of 16 October 2019 – ZV v Commission (Case T‑684/18) (Civil service — Officials — Recruitment — Notice of vacancy — Commission’s deputy mediator — Procedure — Assessment of the merits) 1. Actions brought by officials — Prior administrative complaint — Correspondence between the complaint and the application — Same subject matter and legal basis — Submissions and arguments not made in the complaint but closely related to it — Admissibility (Staff Regulations of Officials, Arts 90 and 91) (see para. 20) 2. Actions brought by officials — Prior administrative complaint — Subject matter — Correspondence between the complaint and the application — Reliance on infringement of essential procedural requirements at any stage of the proceedings — Whether permissible — Conflict of interests not constituting an infringement of essential procedural requirements (see para. 25) 3. Actions brought by officials — Pleas in law — Misuse of powers — Conflict of interests — Subjective nature which precludes review by the Court of its own motion — Inadmissibility — Subjectivity of criteria set out in a vacancy notice — Admissibility (Art. 270 TFUE) (see paras 29-31) 4. Actions brought by officials — Plea of illegality — Need for a close link between the contested measure and the allegedly unlawful earlier measure — Dispute as to the lawfulness of a vacancy notice at the time of an action brought against a rejection of candidature restricted to the provisions which formed the basis for that rejection (Art. 277 TFEU; Staff Regulations of Officials, Art. 91) (see para. 34) 5. Actions brought by officials — Pleas in law — Misuse of powers — Concept (see para. 35) 6. Officials — Vacancy notice — Determination of minimum qualifications required for the post to be filled — Discretion of the appointing authority — Scope (Staff Regulations of Officials, Art. 29) (see para. 38) 7. Officials — Vacancy — Post of Commission’s deputy mediator — Consideration of the comparative merits of candidates — Involvement of a selection board — Whether permissible (see para. 59) 8. Officials — Decision adversely affecting an official — Rejection of candidature — Obligation to state reasons — Scope — Observance of the secrecy of the selection board’s proceedings (Staff Regulations of Officials, Arts 25(2) and 90(2)) (see paras 72-74) 9. Officials — Vacancy — Consideration of the comparative merits of candidates — Administration’s discretion — Judicial review — Limits (Staff Regulations of Officials, Art. 29(1)(a)) (see paras 82, 83) Re: Application based on Article 270 TFEU seeking annulment of the Commission’s decision of 8 February 2018 appointing A as the Commission’s deputy mediator and the note of 12 February 2018 by which the Commission informed the applicant of the outcome of the selection procedure. Operative part The Court: 1. Dismisses the action; 2. Orders ZV to bear her own costs and to pay those incurred by the European Commission.