Keywords

Summary



Keywords

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1. Officials - Actions - Prior complaint through official channels - Act adversely affecting an official - Obligation to submit complaint directly

(Staff Regulations, Art. 90(2) )

2. Officials - Actions - Act adversely affecting an official - Definition - Notice determining entitlement to the allowance granted on termination of service

(Staff Regulations, Arts 90 and 91)

3. Officials - Actions - Prior complaint through official channels - Definition

(Staff Regulations, Art. 90(2) )

4. Officials - Actions - Prior complaint through official channels - Time-limits - Matter of public policy

(Staff Regulations, Arts 90 and 91)

5. Officials - Actions - Act adversely affecting an official - Decision rejecting a complaint - Straight rejection - Confirmatory act - Time for bringing an action not set running afresh

(Staff Regulations, Arts 90 and 91)

6. Officials - Actions - Action against a regulation - Inadmissibility

(EEC Treaty, Art. 179; Staff Regulations, Art. 91)

7. Community law - Principles - Legal certainty - Administrative measure producing legal effects - Requirement of clarity and precision - Obligation to notify interested parties

8. Officials - Duty of the administration to have regard to the interests of officials - Principle of good administration - Scope

Summary

1. An official who seeks the annulment, reversal or the withdrawal of a decision taken by the appointing authority which constitutes an act adversely affecting him may no longer open the pre-litigation procedure at the stage of a request, but must submit directly to the appointing authority a complaint directed against that act in conformity with Article 90(2) of the Staff Regulations.

2. Only acts that directly and immediately affect the applicant' s legal situation may be considered acts adversely affecting an official within the meaning of Article 90(2) of the Staff Regulations.

As regards the pecuniary consequences of measures to terminate service, it is the notice determining entitlement to the monthly allowance which constitutes the act adversely affecting the official concerned and sets time running for lodging a complaint.

3. A letter from an official which does not expressly request the withdrawal of the decision in question but is clearly intended to achieve an amicable settlement of his complaints or a letter which clearly expresses the official' s intention to challenge the decision which adversely affects him constitute complaints within the meaning of Article 90(2) of the Staff Regulations.

4. The periods prescribed for instituting proceedings are a matter of public policy and are not subject to the discretion of the parties or of the Court. This also applies to the periods for lodging complaints which, from the procedural point of view, precede them and are of the same nature since they both contribute, with the objective of ensuring legal certainty, to the regulation of the same remedy.

The fact that an institution, for reasons related to its staff policy, replies to the substance of an administrative complaint submitted out of time does not have the effect of derogating from the system of mandatory time-limits laid down in Articles 90 and 91 of the Staff Regulations or of depriving the administration of its right, at the stage of judicial proceedings, to raise an objection of inadmissibility on the ground that the complaint was out of time.

5. Any implied or express decision rejecting a complaint, if it adds no new facts, merely confirms the act or omission of which the applicant complains and does not constitute on its own a measure against which an action lies.

Such a decision, not containing any new elements in relation to the previous legal or factual situation, cannot revive a right of action which is already extinct.

6. In the context of the right of action made available by Article 91 of the Staff Regulations and in the case of a measure of a general nature designed to be implemented by means of a series of individual decisions affecting all or a large proportion of the officials of an institution, an official, taken individually, cannot be deprived of his right to invoke the illegality of that measure in order to challenge the individual decision which allows him to ascertain with certainty the manner in which and the extent to which his individual interests are affected. However, according to Article 91(2) of the Staff Regulations, actions brought by officials under Article 179 of the EEC Treaty must be directed against the appointing authority and relate to acts or omissions of that authority which adversely affect the applicant. They may not directly seek annulment of the whole or part of a regulation whose lawfulness may be challenged only by way of a plea of illegality, in an appeal against the individual decision applying it.

7. The principle of legal certainty, which is part of the Community legal order, requires that every measure of the administration producing legal effects must be clear and precise and brought to the attention of the person concerned so that he can ascertain with certainty the time at which the measure comes into being and begins to produce its legal effects, particularly as regards the time-limits for bringing an action.

8. The duty to have regard to officials' interests and the principle of good administration mean, in particular, that when the appointing authority takes a decision concerning the situation of an official it should take into consideration all the factors which may affect its decision and that when doing so it should take into account not only the interests of the service but also those of the official concerned.