JUDGMENT OF THE COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE (Second Chamber)

8 November 2000

Case T-158/98

Bernard Bareyt and Others

v

Commission of the European Communities

‛Officials — Temporary agents — Posting to a third country — Remuneration — Fixing of a weighting specific to Naka (Japan) — Retroactive effect — Recovery of overpayment’

Full text in French II-1085

Application for:

annulment of all the salary slips of the applicants from November 1997 in so far as they apply the specific weighting fixed for Naka by Council Regulation (ECSC, EC, Euratom) No 1785/97 of 11 September 1997 laying down the weightings applicable from 1 January 1997 to the remuneration of officials of the European Communities serving in third countries (OJ 1997 L 254, p. 1), and for an order requiring the Commission to repay to the applicants the amounts withheld from their salary with effect from June 1996 by way of recovery of amounts overpaid and to pay them the difference between the salary calculated on the basis of the weighting for Tokyo (Japan) and that paid to them as from November 1997 on the basis of the specific weighting.

Held:

The application is dismissed. The parties are to bear their own costs.

Summary

Officials — Decision adversely affecting an official — Decision of the appointing authority applying a measure of general application to the individual situation of an official — Obligation to state reasons — Scope

The principles of equal treatment and equivalence of purchasing power, applicable to officials and other staff employed within the Member States, also underlie the determination of weightings for third countries. Rules regarding the weightings applicable to the remuneration of officials and staff employed within the Member States, such as: — the Council's obligation to determine whether there is an appreciable difference in the cost of living between the various places of employment and, if so, to draw the appropriate conclusions, — the absence of any margin of discretion for the Council as to the need to introduce a specific weighting for a place of employment if the cost of living there is appreciably lower than in the capital. are, therefore, applicable by analogy to Community staff assigned to posts in third countries. Appraisal by the Community judicature, in so far it concerns the definition and the choice of the basic data and statistical methods used by Eurostat for drawing up proposals for the fixing of weightings, must be confined to verifying that the principles laid down by the Staff Regulations have been complied with, that there is no manifest error of assessment of the facts and that there has been no misuse of powers. The Council enjoys a broad discretion with regard to factors and elements to be taken into account in fixing weightings for third countries in accordance with Article 13 of Annex X to the Staff Regulations. (see paras 55, 57-58) See: 59/81 Commission v Council [1982] ECR 3329, para. 32; C-301/90 Commission v Council [1992] ECR I-221, para. 24; T-544/93 and T-566/93 Abello and Others v Commission [1995] ECRSC I-A-271 and II-815, paras 53 and 56; C-27/97 P Apostolidis and Others v Commission [1999] ECR I-6709, para. 26

In the case of a decision by which the appointing authority applies a measure of general application to the individual situation of an official, without having any discretion in that regard, the statement of reasons may be confined to a reference to the legislative measure and an indication, if necessary in the circumstances of the case, of the reasons why the appointing authority considers that the conditions for the application of that measure to that official are met. The appointing authority is not required by the second paragraph of Article 25 of the Staff Regulations to state the reasons why the Community legislature adopted the legislative measure. (see para. 78)