Judgment — ECLI:EU:F:2012:48
Date: 2012-03-28
Language of the case: Italian
Court formation: First Chamber
Based on: Merger Treaty (1965)
Subject matter: Staff regulations and employment conditions - EC
Procedure: Staff cases - unfounded

Summary 1. Officials — Competitions — Open competition — Online application procedure — Impossibility of amending a validated application — Candidate having failed to reserve in good time a date to sit the access tests — Submission of a new application — Not allowed 2. Officials — Competitions — Open competition — Online application procedure — Candidate having validated her application but failed to reserve in good time a date to sit the access tests — Obstacle to submission of a fresh application before expiry of the deadline for applications — Rule not manifestly inappropriate — Obligation to state specific reasons for adoption of the rule — None (Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, Art. 41(2)(c); Staff Regulations, Art. 25, second para.) 1. In an open competition for the purpose of constituting a reserve for the future recruitment of administrators in the European institutions, a notice which states that once an online application has been validated it can no longer be changed must not only be interpreted as informing all candidates who have applied for such an open competition that the information they supply with their application cannot then be changed. The notice must also be understood as preventing a candidate who has failed to reserve, in good time, a date for sitting the access tests from submitting a fresh application. (see para. 40) 2. In an open competition for the purpose of constituting a reserve for the future recruitment of administrators in the European institutions, a rule preventing a candidate who has validated his online application but has failed to reserve, in good time, a date for sitting the access tests from submitting a fresh application before the expiry of the deadline for applications set out in the competition notice is not manifestly inappropriate in relation to the objective legitimately pursued by the new selection procedure introduced by the European Personnel Selection Office (EPSO) in 2010, the aim of which is to speed up the process of selecting and recruiting future officials. Having explained, in documents published on its website to which candidates in a competition necessarily have access when validating their applications, the main objectives pursued by the reform of the selection procedure, EPSO is under no obligation to state specific reasons for the adoption of such a rule. (see paras 51-52, 54)