Keywords

Summary



Keywords

1. Officials – Careers – Introduction of a new structure by Regulation No 723/2004 – Acquired rights – Success in an internal competition for change of category before 1 May 2004

(Art. 336 TFEU; Staff Regulations of Officials, Annex XIII, Arts 2, 8 and 10; Council Regulation No 723/2004)

2. Officials – Careers – Introduction of a new structure by Regulation No 723/2004 – Challenging the legality of a new regulatory provision

(Art. 336 TFEU; Staff Regulations of Officials, Annex XIII, Arts 2(1), 8(1) and 10(1)(2) and (3); Council Regulation No 723/2004)

3. Officials – Careers – Introduction of a new structure by Regulation No 723/2004 – Breach of the principle of equal treatment – None

(Art. 336 TFEU; Staff Regulations of Officials, Annex XIII, Arts 2 and 10; Council Regulation No 723/2004)

Summary

1. As the legal link between an official and the administration is based upon the Staff Regulations and not upon a contract, the rights and obligations of officials may, subject to compliance with the requirements of Community law, be altered at any time by the legislature. The alteration applies to the future consequences of situations that arose under the previous legislation, except where there are acquired rights, that is, where the event giving rise to those rights occurred before the legislative amendment

Thus, officials who advanced in their careers because they passed an internal competition organised under the old Staff Regulations have acquired the right to have the advance thus made under those regulations acknowledged. However, such a right implies merely that they should receive the same treatment under the Staff Regulations, concerning in particular career advancement, as that given to all the officials of the new grade that they have thus attained.

The legislature’s wide discretion to make the amendments to the Staff Regulations needed, and in particular to alter the structure of the grades of officials, cannot authorise it to make amendments which, among other things, are unconnected with that need or which do not take into account the competences which those grades are supposed to reflect. However, the legislature cannot, on the other hand, be bound by a requirement to maintain strictly the relationship which had hitherto existed between those grades before the amendment of the Staff Regulations. Therefore, officials cannot properly invoke alleged acquired rights to be classified in a higher grade obtained under the old Staff Regulations in order to claim that Articles 2 and 8 of Annex XIII to the new Staff Regulations are vitiated by illegality.

(see paras 82-87)

2. Officials cannot rely on the principle of the protection of legitimate expectations in order to oppose the application of a new statutory provision, especially in a sphere in which the legislature enjoys a considerable degree of latitude, as it does with the new career structure introduced by Regulation No 723/2004, amending the Staff Regulations of officials of the European Communities and the Conditions of Employment of other servants.

(see para. 93)

3. Officials who have passed an internal competition for change of category under the old Staff Regulations are not in the same factual and legal situation as officials who have not passed such a competition. The former had, under the rules of the Staff Regulations, better career prospects than the latter, account of which has been taken in the transitional provisions of Annex XIII to the new Staff Regulations.

Since, by adopting new Staff Regulations, the Community legislature remodelled the entire system of careers then in force, it cannot be required to reproduce identically the hierarchy of grades under the old Staff Regulations, without adversely affecting the possibility that they have of making alterations to the Staff Regulations. In that context, the comparison of hierarchical ranks before and after the reform of the Staff Regulations is not, in itself, conclusive for assessing whether the new Staff Regulations comply with the principle of equal treatment.

The new Staff Regulations make a distinction between the careers of officials belonging, under the old Staff Regulations, to various grades in the hierarchy and ensure, for those who have passed a competition for change of category, different career prospects from those of officials who have not passed the same competition. In particular, the transitional arrangements and Article 10(1) and (2) of Annex XIII to the Staff Regulations especially, ensure, through the rule on the blocking of career advancement and the rule on fixing rates of promotion for the different grades, better career prospects for officials in higher grades under the arrangements of the old Staff Regulations and, accordingly, for those who have advanced in the grades after passing a competition for change of category.

(see paras 102, 105-106)