Judgment — ECLI:EU:T:2003:332
Date: 2003-12-10
Based on: Merger Treaty (1965)
Subject matter: Staff regulations and employment conditions - EC
Concepts: Inter-institutional transfer;http://publications.europa.eu/resource/authority/fd_577/F-04.03.02
Procedure: Staff cases - successful

SUMMARY — CASE T-173/02 
Summary 
1. Officials - Competition — Conditions of admission - Category B posts -
Requirement of prior completion of full secondary education and possession of a 
leaving certificate giving access to university - Stricter requirement than that for 
the performance of category B duties - Permissible - Condition - Express 
reference in notice of competition 
(Staff Regulations, Art. 5(1)) 
2. Officials - Recruitment — Classification in grade - Factors to be taken into 
consideration - Application for reclassification - Account taken of studies 
completed before recruitment, but for which a diploma was not awarded until after 
recruitment - Permissible 
(Staff Regulations, Art. 31(2)) 
1. The third paragraph of Article 5(1) of the Staff Regulations does not prohibit a 
notice of competition from setting stricter conditions for access to category B posts 
than those which it sets for the performance of duties in that category. 
It is therefore open to the institution to make the admission of candidates to tests in 
a competition for category B posts subject to the prior completion of full secondary 
education and possession of a leaving certificate giving access to university. 
I-A - 322 
TOMARCHIO v COMMISSION 
However, such a requirement must be clearly expressed in the wording of the notice 
of competition, since there are a great many different types of secondary education 
in the various Member States, some of which are not preparatory to education at 
university level and do not give automatic access to such education. 
(see paras 59-61) 
See: 117/78 Orlandi v Commission [1979] ECR 1613, para. 21; T-82/92 Cortes Jimenez 
and Others v Commission [1994] ECR-SC I-A-69 and II-237, para. 20 
2. Although the appointing authority may base its decision on the appointment and 
initial grade of a successful candidate in a competition solely on that person's 
qualifications and experience at the time when he is engaged, there is nothing to 
stop it from taking into account, for the purpose of determining whether or not the 
person concerned possessed exceptional qualifications which might allow him to be 
placed in the higher grade, studies which had been duly completed at the time of his 
engagement and of which the authority was aware, when it decides on his 
application for reclassification in grade. 
(see paras 77-78) 
I-A - 323