CELEX: C1996/133/63
Language: en
Date: 1996-05-04 00:00:00
Title: Action brought on 8 March 1996 by Bernd Schoch against the European Parliament (Case T-29/96)

No C 133/30          EN                  Official Journal of the European Communities                                       4 . 5 . 96
In support of her application, the applicant relies on the plea     — order the European Parliament to pay the costs of the
that the election procedure was irregular in so far as the               proceedings pursuant to Article 87 et seq . of the Rules of
Electoral Committee counted the votes cast by the members                Procedure , and in particular the expenses relating to the
of local staff in the Delegation to the Solomon Islands                  address for service, travel and subsistence expenses and
whereas , contrary to the instructions of 19 October 1994                lawyer's fees .
sent by the Electoral Committee to all heads of delegations,
the number of votes cast did not match the number of voters .
The Head of the Delegation indeed affirmed that the six
members of local staff had cast their votes in the proper           Pleas in law and main arguments
manner, but that statement cannot be verified . The Electoral
Committee was therefore wrong to declare the regional               The applicant, a former temporary member of staff with the
elections held in the Solomon Islands to be valid and to
count the votes cast in those elections .
                                                                    ELDR Group in the European Parliament, was affected by
                                                                    total incapacity for work as the result of an illness during the
                                                                    final period of his contract. He contests the refusal by the
The applicant also points out that, under Article 9 ( 2 ) of the    defendant institution to remunerate him for the leave which
Staff Regulations, the Commission has the right, and is             he did not take in 1994 .
under a duty, to ensure that elections to the Staff Committee
are properly conducted and to intervene if the electoral rules
are not complied with . In the present case, there was a            The applicant takes particular exception to the Parliament's
manifest irregularity in the electoral procedure; the               assertion that he unjustifiably absented himself during the
Commission should therefore have intervened in order to             month of 2 September 1994 and that this absence ought
mitigate the consequences of that irregularity, but failed to       accordingly to be deducted from his leave pursuant to
do so .                                                             Article 60 of the Staff Regulations .
                                                                    The applicant stresses in this regard that medical certificates
                                                                    covering the period in question were properly submitted to
                                                                    the secretariat of the Parliament's Medical Service . He also
                                                                    points out that his legal counsel expressly referred to
                                                                    incapacity by reason of illness in September 1994 and that
                                                                    he was at no time told that payment would not be made to
                                                                    him in respect of all or some of those unused leave days on
Action brought on 8 March 1996 by Bernd Schoch against
                                                                    the ground that the Parliament had not received any medical
                  the European Parliament                           certificate for September 1994 . In fact, it was not until
                       ( Case T-29/96 )                             12 May 1995 that the allegedly unauthorized nature of his
                         ( 96/C 133/63 )                            absence was raised . The applicant wishes to point out in this
                                                                    regard that, following denials that the medical certificates
                                                                    had been submitted for the periods after 15 July 1994,
               (Language of the case: French)                       certificates were none the less rediscovered for the period
                                                                    from 16 July 1994 to 1 September 1994 .
An action against the European Parliament was brought
before the Court of First Instance of the European                  In a strictly legal context, the applicant submits that
Communities on 8 March 1 996 by Bernd Schoch, residing in           Article 60 of the Staff Regulations provides that an allegedly
Gottmadingen ( Federal Republic of Germany ), represented           unauthorized absence must be established and that, in so far
                                                                    as it was not until seven months after the material time that
by Lucas Vogel , of the Brussels Bar, with an address for
service in Luxembourg at the Chambers of Christian                  it was claimed that the applicant had failed to submit a
Kremer, 8— 10 Rue Mathias Hardt.                                    medical certificate for September 1994 — even though the
                                                                    applicant's counsel had in that same month expressly
                                                                    referred to his client's incapacity by reason of illness during
The applicant claims that the Court should :                        that month — that finding would appear to be too late to
                                                                    justify application of the abovementioned Article 60 .
— annul the implied decision of rejection and the express
    decision of partial rejection taken by the European             Finally, even if the Court were to take the view that the
    Parliament on 26 February 1996 in respect of the                applicant's incapacity cannot be accepted as justification for
    complaint lodged by the applicant on 9 August 1 995 ,           his absence in September 1994, that absence ought in any
                                                                    event to be regarded as justified by the decision of the ELDR
                                                                    Group to give him no further work and to release him from
— order the European Parliament to pay to the applicant             provision of notice .
    the gross sum of Bfr 124 120 in respect of the 1 9,5 leave
    days which he did not take in 1994 , increased by default
    interest at an annual rate of 8 % , with effect from
    31 December 1994 , the date on which that sum ought to
    have been paid to him,