Keywords

Summary



Keywords

1. Officials – Remuneration – Annual adjustment – Council’s discretion – Limits – Compliance with criteria set out in Annex XI to the Staff Regulations

(Staff Regulations of Officials, Art. 65; Annex XI, Art. 3)

2. Officials – Remuneration – Annual adjustment – Council’s discretion – Taking account of a serious economic crisis – Conditions

(Art. 13(2), TEU; Art. 241 TFEU; Staff Regulations of Officials, Annex XI, Arts 3 and 10)

3. Officials – Remuneration – Annual examination and adjustment – Rules laid down by Annex XI to the Staff Regulations

(Staff Regulations of Officials, Art. 65(1) and 2; Annex XI, Arts 1 to 7)

4. Actions for annulment – Judgment annulling a measure – Effects – Annulment of certain provisions of the Council regulation adjusting the remuneration of officials of the Union – Maintenance in force of the annulled provisions until the entry into force of a new regulation

(Art. 264, second para., TFEU)

Summary

1. Although Article 65(1) of the Staff Regulations confers discretion on the Council in the annual review of the level of remuneration, the detailed rules for its implementation are set out in Annex XI to the Staff Regulations, which has the same legal force as Article 65, and Article 3 of which lays down exhaustively the criteria governing the annual adjustment of the level of remuneration.

The framework created by Article 3 is justified in the light of inter alia the objectives of ensuring a degree of medium‑term stability and avoiding discussions and recurrent difficulties, in particular between the organisations representing the staff and the institutions concerned, as to whether and to what extent an adjustment is justified or necessary. In order that those objectives may be achieved, it is necessary for the Council to comply with the criteria established in Article 3 of Annex XI to the Staff Regulations, by adopting which the Council bound itself, for the period of validity of that annex, to exercise its discretion under Article 65 of the Staff Regulations in accordance with the criteria laid down exhaustively in Article 3 of that annex.

(see paras 55-58, 68-71)

2. For the period of application of Annex XI to the Staff Regulations, the procedure laid down in Article 10 thereof constitutes the only means of taking account of an economic crisis in the adjustment of the remuneration of officials and therefore of disapplying the criteria laid down in Article 3(2) of that annex.

That finding cannot be invalidated by the fact that the application of Article 10 of Annex XI to the Staff Regulations is dependent on a proposal from the Commission. In the light of the wording of that provision, of the duty of cooperation in good faith between the institutions expressly enshrined in the second sentence of Article 13(2) TEU and of the possibility open to the Council of asking the Commission to submit proposals to it, as set out in Article 241 TFEU, it cannot be considered that the exercise of the powers conferred on the Commission by Article 10 constitutes a mere option for that institution.

(see paras 77-80)

3. Nothing, in either Article 65 of the Staff Regulations or in Annex XI to the Staff Regulations, gives to a possibility for the Council of laying down, in the context of the annual review of the level of remuneration, new rules allowing a review of that level, or of adjusting the remuneration outside the framework of the annual adjustment under Articles 65(1) of the Staff Regulations and 1 to 3 of Annex XI to the Staff Regulations.

(see para. 92)

4. The risk of discontinuity in the system of remuneration of officials and other servants of the Union which might be brought about by the annulment of a regulation relating to the annual adjustment of that remuneration, makes it justifiable for the Court to apply the second paragraph of Article 264 TFEU and to maintain the effects of the annulled provisions, until the adoption by the Council of a new regulation drawing appropriate inferences from that annulment..

(see para. 95)