Opinion of the Advocate General — ECLI:EU:C:1999:297
Date: 1999-06-10
Based on: Merger Treaty (1965)
Subject matter: Staff regulations and employment conditions - EC
Procedure: Appeal - unfounded

Summary of the Judgment 
1. Appeals — Pleas in law — Review by the Court of the legal nature of the facts — 
Whether permissible 
(EC Treaty, Art. 168a (now Article 225 EC)) 
2. Officials — Rights and obligations — Freedom of expression — Observance, despite 
the obligation of allegiance to the Communities — Official's comments on staff report 
(Staff Regulations, Art. 43, second para.) 
3. Appeals — Pleas in law — Grounds of a judgment vitiated by an infringement of 
Community law — Operative part well founded on other legal grounds — Dismissal 
I - 8877 
SUMMARY — CASE C-150/98 Ρ 
1. Where the Court of First Instance has 
found or assessed facts, the Court of 
Justice has jurisdiction under Arti­
cle 168a of the EC Treaty (now Arti­
cle 225 EC) to review the legal nature 
of those facts and the legal conse­
quences thereof as determined by the 
Court of First Instance. 
2. The obligation of allegiance to the 
Communities imposed on officials in 
the Staff Regulations cannot be inter­
preted in such a way as to conflict with 
the right to freedom of expression. 
Observance of that right is particularly 
important where an official is exercis­
ing his right under the second para­
graph of Article 43 of the Staff Reg­
ulations to make any comments he 
considers relevant on a staff report 
communicated to him. 
Therefore, whilst it would seem to be 
legitimate to require officials to show 
discretion, as indeed they are expressly 
required by Articles 12 and 21 of the 
Staff Regulations to do, that require­
ment is not to be narrowly construed in 
respect of an official exercising his 
right under the second paragraph of 
Article 43 of the Staff Regulations. 
Accordingly, an official cannot be con­
sidered to have failed to meet that 
requirement unless he uses seriously 
insulting language or language which 
seriously undermines the respect due to 
the reporting officer. 
3. Where the grounds of a judgment of 
the Court of First Instance disclose an 
infringement of Community law but 
the operative part of the judgment is 
shown to be well founded on other 
legal grounds, the appeal must be 
dismissed. 
I - 8878