Judgment — ECLI:EU:T:2019:5
Date: 2019-01-15
Language of the case: French
Court formation: Fourth Chamber
Based on: Merger Treaty (1965)
Subject matter: Staff regulations and employment conditions - EC
Procedure: Action for damages - successful;Staff cases;Action for damages - inadmissible

Judgment of the General Court (Fourth Chamber) of 15 January 2019 – HJ v EMA (Case T‑881/16) (Civil service — Temporary agents — Partial inadmissibility — Application for an injunction — Access of officials to their personal file — Articles 26 and 26a of the Staff Regulations — Access to documents — Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 — Personal file made accessible to all members of staff of the EMA — Protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data by EU institutions and bodies — Liability — Non-material harm) 1. Actions for damages — Jurisdiction of the EU judicature — Unlimited jurisdiction — Direction issued to an institution to pay compensation for the damage alleged — Not permissible (Arts 268 and 340, second para. TFEU) (see para. 26) 2. European Union — Institutions — Right of public access to documents — Regulation No 1049/2001 — Rule of a general nature — Request by an official for access to his personal and medical files — Subject to the Staff Regulations of Officials (Staff Regulations of Officials, Arts 26, seventh and eighth paras, and 26a; European Parliament and Council Regulation No 1049/2001) (see paras 42-45) 3. Officials — Non-contractual liability of the institutions — Conditions — Unlawfulness — Concept — Application in proceedings concerning the Staff Regulations — Criteria (Art. 270 TFEU) (see paras 50-54) 4. Officials — Non-contractual liability of the institutions — Conditions — Damage — Non-material damage sustained as a result of the disclosure of personal data — Burden of proof (Art. 340 TFEU) (see paras 55-57) 5. Actions brought by officials — Actions for damages — Annulment of the illegal act in dispute — Whether appropriate reparation for non-material damage — Limits (Staff Regulations of Officials, Art. 91) (see para. 60) Re: Application pursuant to Article 270 TFEU seeking, first, compensation in respect of the non-material harm which the applicant claims to have suffered following the disclosure of his personal file to all members of staff of the EMA and, secondly, the withdrawal of two documents from that file. Operative part The Court: 1. Orders the European Medicines Agency (EMA) to pay HJ the symbolic sum of EUR 1 by way of compensation for the non-material harm suffered; 2. Dismisses the action as to the remainder; 3. Orders the EMA to bear its own costs and pay those incurred by HJ.