CELEX: C1997/009/34
Language: en
Date: 1997-01-11 00:00:00
Title: Action brought on 4 November 1996 by Georges Berthu against the Commission of the European Communities (Case T-175/96)

11.1.97              I EN                 Official Journal of the European Communities                                  No C 9/ 19
 Action brought on 4 November 1996 by Georges Berthu                  Action brought on 8 November 1996 by Mario
    against the Commission of the European Communities                Costacurta against the Commission of the European
                                                                                                 Communities
                         ( Case T-175/96 )
                                                                                              ( Case T- 177/96 )
                            ( 97/C 9/34
                                                                                                  ( 97/C 9/35 )
                 (Language of the case: French)
                                                                                      (Language of the case: French)
 An action against the Commission of the European
                                                                      An action against the Commission of the European
 Communities was brought before the Court of First
                                                                      Communities was brought before the Court of First
 Instance of the European Communities on 4 November
                                                                      Instance of the European Communities on 8 November
 1996 by Georges Berthu, residing at Chelles ( France ),
                                                                      1996 by Mario Costacurta, residing in Luxembourg,
 represented by Alexandre Varaut, of the Paris Bar.
                                                                      represented by Nicolas Decker, of the Luxembourg Bar,
                                                                      with an address for service in Luxemburg at the latter's
The applicant claims that the Court should:                           Chambers, 16 avenue Marie-Therese.
— declare unlawful the decision of the Commission of                  The applicant claims that the Court should :
      16 October 1996 proposing to the Council a
      Regulation laying down a number of provisions                   — annul the decision of the Commission 's administration
      relating to the introduction of the European currency.              of 14 November 1995 , confirmed by express decision
                                                                          of the Commission of 22 July 1996, refusing the
Pleas in law and main arguments adduced in support:                       applicant's requests for transfers of Bfrs 60 000 per
                                                                          month, with application of the weightings for Zaire,
                                                                          for the period from March 1993 to December 1995 ,
The applicant, a Member of the European Parliament, is                    and for transfers of Bfrs 1 00 000 for the period from
opposed to the change of name of the future European                      January to August 1996,
currency from ecu to Euro, as mentioned in a proposal for
a Council Regulation laying down a number of provisions
relating to the introduction of the Euro, Article 2 of which          — consequently, order the Commission to pay the
provides that 'from 1 January 1999, all references to the                 applicant the balance due when those weightings are
ecu, within the meaning of Article 109g of the EC Treaty                  applied, amounting in total to Bfrs 4 075 352, together
. . . shall be replaced by a reference to the Euro at the rate            with interest at the legal rate with effect from
of Euro 1 for ecu 1 '.                                                    16 February 1996 , the date of the complaint which he
                                                                          submitted     under      Article  90   (2) of  the   Staff
                                                                          Regulations,
The applicant claims that the change of name of the
European currency constitutes, in legal terms, a review of            — order the Commission to pay all expenses and costs
the Treaty which cannot be carried out according to the                   incurred in relation to the proceedings.
procedure chosen by the Commission's proposal for a
Regulation, namely, that of Article 235 of the Treaty.                Pleas in law and main arguments adduced in support:
Furthermore, in the French version of the Treaty, the
European currency is referred to as the 'Ecu' and that
word is not a series of initials since, in such a case, it            Following his assignment as of 16 February 1993 to the
                                                                      Commission's delegation to Kinshasa ( Zaire ), the
should have been written in upper case. Moreover, if it did
stand for 'European currency unit', there could not be an             applicant took up his duties as administrative and
accent over the letter ' E' in French .                               financial assistant on 26 March 1993 . His assignment to
                                                                      Zaire ended on 31 August 1996 .
The applicant claims, as an additional ancillary point, that          By letter of 22 July 1996 from the Director-General of
the change of name in question conceals more serious                 Personnel and Administration, the applicant's request for
breaches of the letter or spirit of the Treaty. According to         application of the weightings over that period was
the applicant, the name 'ecu' was linked, in the wording             expressly refused.
of Article 105 et seq. of the Treaty, to a relatively uniform
monetary system in which all the Member States                       The applicant contests the decision refusing application of
participated, subject to derogations enabling them to                the weightings to the transfer of part of his salary to
remain outside it .
                                                                     Kinshasa, alleging that it infringed Articles 12 and 13 of
                                                                     Annex X to the Staff Regulations .
On the other hand, the name 'Euro' runs the risk of being
associated with a different system, as yet not totally               The applicant maintains that the Commission impaired his
defined, but of which it is known that the technical                 fundamental and legitimate pecuniary rights, since he
provisions will not coincide with that of its predecessor. In        personally suffered a very considerable loss of purchasing
particular, the future 'Euro' would bring together                   power. Furthermore, he argues that in his regard the
Members who are radically different from those whose                 Commission failed to fulfil its duty to have regard for the
currencies constitute the ecu basket.                                welfare of officials : first, by publishing the weightings for
                                                                     the period from March 1993 to June 1993 30 months late