ORDER OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE

11 March 1994

Case T-589/93 R

Susan Ryan-Sheridan

v

European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions

‛Officials — Procedure for interim relief — Interim measures’

Full text in French II-257

Application for:Interim measures in the form of suspension of operation of:

— the procedure following the Vacancy Notice for the post of Programme Manager: Publications and the Notice of Restricted Competition for filling that post;

— the decision by which the Director of the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions excluded the applicant from the procedure for filling the post;

— the decision of the recruitment committee, by which it considered that the applicant was not sufficiently qualified and experienced in the various specific fields to which the vacant post relates to be asked to attend an interview; and in the form of an interim order that the defendant temporarily suspend all the subsequent steps of the procedure in progress for filling the post.

Decision:

Application dismissed.

Abstract of the Order

Following the publication of the Vacancy Notice and the Notice of Restricted Competition regarding a post of Programme Manager: Publications in category A, the applicant, an employee in category B, Grade 2, responsible for publications at the Foundation, applied for the post. The Director of the Foundation informed her that her application had been unsuccessful, on the ground that the recruitment committee considered that she was not sufficiently qualified and experienced in the various specific areas to which the post relates to be asked to attend an interview.

The application for suspension of the procedure

The President of the Court of First Instance observes that the interim measures requested by the applicant are essentially for a suspension of the procedure for filling the vacant post (paragraph 18).

The President of the Court of First Instance then points out that the judge hearing an application for interim measures must make an assessment of the urgency of adopting the interim measures by examining whether implementation of the contested acts, before a decision is made on the substance, is capable of causing the party making the application to suffer irreversible damage which could not be remedied, even if the contested decision were annulled, or which, despite its temporary nature, would be disproportionate to the defendant institution's interest in seeing those acts implemented, even where they form the subject-matter of an action (paragraph 19).

See: 176/88 R Honning v Parliament [1988] ECR 3915, para. 9

The President of the Court of First Instance points out that, if the Court were to find the application in the main proceedings to be well founded, the defendant institution would be obliged to adopt the measures necessary for the reestablishment of the applicant's rights (paragraph 20).

Furthermore, die applicant has prima facie failed to adduce, in support of her allegation that, as a result of the correspondence between her current duties and those of the post to be filled, she would be deprived of all duties within the institution if another candidate were appointed before the Court gave judgment, any evidence of a nature such as to satisfy the judge hearing this application for interim relief, who may not prejudge the findings which the Court, when adjudicating on the substance of the case, will make with respect to that allegation (paragraph 21).

Nor may the applicant rely in argument on an ever increasing degree of competition, actual or potential, which would reduce correspondingly her chances of being appointed to the vacant post, since such a situation is the normal objective of any competition procedure (paragraph 22).

Accordingly, the President of the Court of First Instance dismisses the application for interim measures without there being any need to consider whether the pleas in law and arguments submitted by the applicant in support of the main application are prima facie well founded (paragraph 25).

Operative part:

The application for interim measures is dismissed.