Judgment — ECLI:EU:T:2001:172
Date: 2001-06-27
Language of the case: French
Court formation: Second Chamber
Based on: Merger Treaty (1965)
Subject matter: Staff regulations and employment conditions - EC
Concepts: Specific cases of acts having adverse effect;General
Procedure: Staff cases - successful

SUMMARY - CASE T-214/00 
Summary 
1. Officials — Actions — Act adversely affecting an official — Deduction by way of 
set-off from the salary of an official ordered to pay costs 
(Arts 44 CS and 92 CS; Arts 244 EC and 256 EC; Arts 159 EA and 164 EA; Staff 
Regulations, Arts 62 and 90(2)) 
2. Officials — Remuneration — Deduction by way of set-off from the salary of an 
official ordered to pay costs — No legal basis — Need for the institution to obtain 
the agreement of the person concerned 
(Staff Regulations, Art. 62) 
1. The decision by an institution to deduct from an official's salary a sum 
corresponding to the amount which it claims from him in payment of the costs 
awarded to it in earlier proceedings constitutes an act adversely affecting him within 
the meaning of Article 90(2) of the Staff Regulations. 
Such a decision cannot be regarded as an enforcement measure governed by the 
provisions of Articles 44 CS and 92 CS in conjunction with Articles 244 EC and 
256 EC and Articles 159 EA and 164 EA. 
Moreover, by making the deduction from salary, the institution necessarily 
encroached upon the rights which the official derives from Article 62 of the Staff 
Regulations. 
(see paras 21-23) 
I-A - 144 
X v COMMISSION 
2. The decision by an institution to deduct from the salary of an official without his 
consent a sum corresponding to the amount which it claims from him in payment 
of the costs awarded to it in earlier proceedings has no legal basis. 
The fact that an institution is able to use set-off as a method of payment in a 
relationship governed by the Staff Regulations is liable to give rise to serious 
restrictions on the free disposal of their salary by officials of the institutions. In the 
absence, in the main body of the Staff Regulations, of any express provision, as 
referred to in the first paragraph of Article 62, conferring on it the power to do so, 
an institution is not entitled, without the agreement of the person concerned, to use 
set-off in order to withhold part of the salary of an official whose right to 
remuneration is enshrined in Article 62 of the Staff Regulations. 
(see paras 28-29, 34) 
I-A - 145