The rights under Article 12a of the Staff Regulations are applicable where the perpetrator of the harassment is a Member of the European Parliament. Although it is true that Article 12a(1) of the Staff Regulations applies only to officials, it is also true that Article 12a(2) refers to an official who has been the victim of psychological harassment, without any precise detail as to the source of that harassment. It follows that Article 12a(1) does not, as such, preclude the Parliament from taking action, where the presumed perpetrator of the harassment is a Member of that institution.

Under the European Parliament’s Internal Rules for the Advisory Committee on Harassment and its Prevention at the Workplace, once a case has been reported to the Advisory Committee by an official or other member of the institution’s staff, it has specific powers to enforce the provisions of Article 12a of the Staff Regulations on a case by case basis, its principal tasks being, according to Article 5 of those Rules, to prevent and/or stop any harassment, working ‘with complete autonomy, independence and confidentiality’, according to Article 7 of the Rules.

In particular, it is clear from Articles 10 and 11 of the Internal Rules that the referral of a case to the Advisory Committee by any official or other member of the institution’s staff is not subject to the production of any prima facie evidence of harassment, and that, on the contrary, once a case has been reported to it, the Committee is obliged to carry out the tasks entrusted to it without the performance of those duties being subject to any prior decision of the appointing authority, unless the Committee itself reports the matter to the appointing authority for a decision pursuant in particular to Article 14 of the Internal Rules.

Consequently, it is a manifest infringement of the Internal Rules, first, for the Advisory Committee to decline jurisdiction on the pretext that the presumed harasser of an accredited parliamentary assistant was the Member responsible for him, whereas the Rules make no provision for it to decline jurisdiction on that ground, and, second, for the Parliament to reject the staff member’s complaint by asserting that the claims of harassment he had brought before the Committee on the basis of Article 9 of the Rules were not supported by any prima facie evidence, even though the Rules make no reference to such an admissibility requirement for the Advisory Committee on Harassment to deal with a request.

It also follows that, pursuant to the third sentence of Article 90(1) of the Staff Regulations, the absence of a reply from the Advisory Committee on Harassment to a staff member’s request is equivalent to an implied decision rejecting it by the contracting authority.

Neither the purpose nor the content of the Internal Rules justifies an interpretation in which the Advisory Committee does not have the power to hear an accredited parliamentary assistance who considers himself the victim of harassment and to consider a request for assistance made by him in that connection.

It should be noted, moreover, that a different interpretation would render Article 12a of the Staff Regulations ineffective and would deny accredited parliamentary assistants the protection afforded by that provision against any psychological harassment which they might suffer from a Member. Such an outcome manifestly conflicts with the purpose and scope of that provision of the Staff Regulations and with Article 31(1) of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, which expressly provides that every worker has the right to working conditions which respect his or her health, safety and dignity.

(see paras 40-43, 46, 47)

Judgment in CH v Parliament, EU:F:2013:203, para. 59