Judgment of the General Court (Sixth Chamber) of 13 December 2018 –

Carpenito and Others v Council

(Joined Cases T‑543/16 and T‑544/16)

(Civil service — Remuneration — Annual adjustment of the remuneration and pensions of officials and other EU staff — Regulations (EU) No 422/2014 and No 423/2014 — Adjustments of salaries and pensions for the years 2011 and 2012 — Duty to state reasons — Proportionality — Legitimate expectations — Rules on social dialogue)

1. Officials — Remuneration — Weightings — Regulations implementing the Staff Regulations — Statement of reasons — Obligation — Scope (Staff Regulations of Officials, Arts 64 and 65 and Annex XI) (see paras 57-59, 65)

2. Officials — Remuneration — Weightings — Fixing — Judicial review — Limits (Staff Regulations of Officials, Arts 64 and 65 and Annex XI) (see paras 73, 74)

3. Officials — Remuneration — Annual adjustment — Carve-out clause — Discretion of the institutions — Scope (Staff Regulations of Officials, Annex XI, Arts 3 and 10) (see paras 78-82)

4. Officials — Remuneration — Annual adjustment — Allocation of powers among the different institutions (Staff Regulations of Officials, Art. 65 and Annex XI, Arts 3 and 10) (see paras 75, 87, 88)

5. Acts of the institutions — Procedure for adoption — Rules laid down in the Treaties — Mandatory nature — Whether an institution can establish secondary legal bases — No such legal basis (see paras 95, 102)

6. Actions for annulment — Judgment annulling a measure — Effects — Obligation to implement — Scope — Both the operative part and the grounds of the judgment to be taken into account (Art. 266 TFEU) (see paras 109, 110)

7. Acts of the institutions — Temporal application — Immediate application of the new rule to the future effects of a situation which arose under the old rule — Adoption of Regulations No 422/2014 and 423/2014 adjusting the remuneration and pensions of officials and other servants — Infringement of acquired rights — None (see paras 116-119)

8. Officials — Remuneration — Annual adjustment — Carve-out clause — Scope — Weightings — Respect of the principle of legitimate expectations — Scope (Staff Regulations of Officials, Arts 64 and 65 and Annex XI, Art. 10) (see paras 131, 132, 134, 136)

9. Officials — Remuneration — Annual adjustment — Carve-out clause — Scope — Weightings — Observance of the principle of proportionality — Judicial review — Limits (Staff Regulations of Officials, Arts 64 and 65 and Annex XI, Art. 10) (see paras 140-142)

10. Fundamental rights — Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union — Workers’ right to information and consultation within the undertaking — Right to collective bargaining — Possibility of relying on those rights in relations between the Union institutions and their staff — Limits (Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, Arts 27 and 28) (see para. 165)

11. Actions brought by officials — Application for damages linked to an application for annulment — Dismissal of claim for annulment leading to dismissal of the claim for compensation (Staff Regulations of Officials, Arts 90 and 91) (see para. 181)

Re:

Action under Article 270 TFEU seeking, first, annulment of the Council decisions to apply to the applicants’ salaries or pensions the 0% adjustment for the year 2011 provided for in Regulation (EU) No 422/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 April 2014, adjusting with effect from 1 July 2011 the remuneration and pensions of officials and other servants of the European Union and the correction coefficients applied thereto (OJ 2014 L 129, p. 5), and the 0.8% adjustment for the year 2012, provided for in Regulation (EU) No 423/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 April 2014 adjusting with effect from 1 July 2012 the remuneration and pensions of officials and other servants of the European Union and the correction coefficients applied thereto (OJ 2014 L 129, p. 12), and, secondly, compensation for the damage allegedly suffered by the applicants as a result of those decisions.

Operative part

The Court:

1. Dismisses the actions;

2. Orders the applicants to bear their own costs and to pay the costs incurred by the Council of the European Union;