Judgment — ECLI:EU:T:2000:51
Date: 2000-02-23
Language of the case: Italian
Court formation: Second Chamber
Based on: Merger Treaty (1965)
Subject matter: Staff regulations and employment conditions - EC
Concepts: Judicial review;Plea alleging misuse of powers
Procedure: Staff cases - unfounded

SUMMARY - CASE T-164/98 
Summary 
1. Officials — Assessment — Periodic report — Judicial review - Limits 
(Staff Regulations, Art. 43) 
2. Officials - Appeals - Pleas in law - Misuse of powers - Concept 
1. Except in the case of manifest errors of fact, it is not for the Court of First 
Instance to review the merits of the administration's assessment of the professional 
abilities of an official, where it involves complex value-judgments which by their 
very nature are not amenable to objective verification. 
(see para. 23) 
See: T-63/89 Latham v Commission [1991] ECR II-19, para. 19; T-212/97 Hubert v 
Commission [1999] ECR-SC II-185, para. 142 
2. The existence of misuse of powers can be established only in the presence of 
objective, relevant and consistent evidence which make it possible to establish that 
the contested act pursued an aim other than that ascribed to it by the applicable 
provisions of the Staff Regulations. 
I-A - 36 
CARRARO v COMMISSION 
Assessments, even though they express reservations or are negative, all have a place 
in a periodic report and cannot therefore in themselves indicate the existence of a 
misuse of powers. 
(see paras 32 and 36) 
See: Hubert v Commission, cited above, para. 163 
I-A - 37