Order — ECLI:EU:F:2008:67
Date: 2008-05-22
Language of the case: English
Court formation: First Chamber
Based on: Merger Treaty (1965)
Subject matter: Staff regulations and employment conditions - EC
Concepts: Admissibility and examination of applications, forms of order sought and pleas in law
Procedure: Staff cases

Summary Procedure – Admissibility of pleadings – Assessment at the time when the pleading is submitted (Rules of Procedure of the Court of First Instance, Art. 114; Rules of Procedure of the Civil Service Tribunal, Art. 78) Where a plea of inadmissibility relates to an application lodged at the Registry of the Civil Service Tribunal before the date of entry into force of its own Rules of Procedure, the procedural rules referred to in Article 78 of the Rules of Procedure of the Civil Service Tribunal, in particular that laid down by paragraph 3 of that article, which empowers the Tribunal to decide by way of order not going to the substance of the case, together with the rules on admissibility of the application to which Article 114 of the Rules of Procedure of the Court of First Instance referred, applicable mutatis mutandis to the Tribunal pending the entry into force of its Rules of Procedure, must be applied. As the time allowed for submitting a plea of inadmissibility begins to run, whether under Article 114 of the Rules of Procedure of the Court of First Instance or under Article 78 of the Rules of Procedure of the Civil Service Tribunal, from the service of the application, where such service was effected before the entry into force of the Rules of Procedure of the Civil Service Tribunal, the period to be observed is necessarily that which was then in force, laid down by the Rules of Procedure of the Court of First Instance. Thus, in accordance with the principle of legal certainty, the entry into force of the Rules of Procedure of the Civil Service Tribunal could not have the effect in law of reducing the period, which had already begun to run on the date when they came into force, for the lodging of a plea by separate document. The relevant date for verifying observance of the prescribed period is the date on which the plea of inadmissibility is lodged with the Civil Service Tribunal, and not that of service of that plea on the applicant. (see paras 23, 25, 26) See: T-47/92 Lenz v Commission [1992] ECR II‑2523, para. 34 F-16/05 Falcione v Commission [2006] ECR-SC I‑A‑1‑3 and II‑A‑1‑7, para. 84; F-82/06 Duyster v Commission [2007] ECR-SC I‑A-1-0000 and II-A-1-0000, para. 40; F-80/06 Duyster v Commission [2008] ECR-SC I‑A-1-0000 and II-A-1-0000, paras 38 to 43