CELEX: C1996/233/17
Language: en
Date: 1996-08-10 00:00:00
Title: Action brought on 10 May 1996 by Augusto Fichtner against the Commission of the European Communities (Case T-63/96)

10 . 8 . 96            EN                   Official Journal of the European Communities                               No C 233/9
 Action brought on 10 May 1996 by Augusto Fichtner                      — infringement and erroneous application of Articles 43 et
   against the Commission of the European Communities                       seq. of the Staff Regulations ,
                          ( Case T-63 /96 )
                                                                        — breach of an essential procedural requirement,
                            ( 96/C 233/ 17 )
                                                                        — misuse of powes inasmuch as the facts were distorted,
                 (Language of the case: Italian)                            and
                                                                        — misuse of powers inasmuch as the statement of reasons is
 An action against the Commission of the European                           defective, illogical and contradictory.
 Communities was brought before the Court of First
 Instance of the European Communities on 10 May 1996 by
 Augusto Fichtner, an official at the Joint Research Centre at
 Ispra , residing at Varese, represented by Vincenzo Salvatore ,
 of the Pavia Bar, with an address for service in Varese at 6
 Via Orrigoni .
                                                                        Action brought on 10 May 1996 by Filippo de Jorio against
 The applicant claims that the Court should :                                       the Council of the European Union
                                                                                                ( Case T-64/96 )
 — annul the decision of the Commission of 12 February                                            ( 96/C 233/ 18 )
     1996 rejecting the applicant's complaint No 67/95
     against his immediate superior's assessments in his staff
     report for the period 1991 to 1993 ,                                              (Language of the case: Italian)
 — order the Commission to compensate the applicant for                 An action against the Council of the European Union was
     the material and non-material damage suffered by him               brought before the Court of First Instance of the European
     as a result of the conduct complained of in such an                Communities on 1 0 May 1 996 by Filippo de Jorio, member
     amount as the Court may deem fair,                                 of the Economic and Social Committee of the European
                                                                        Union, represented and defenced by Lucio Filippo Longo,
                                                                        Avvocato and Procuratore in Rome, with an address for
— order the unsuccessful party to pay the costs .
                                                                        service in Luxembourg at the Chambers of Ernest Arendt,
                                                                        8-10 Rue Mathias Hardt .
 Pleas in law and main arguments adduced in support:
                                                                       Pleas in law and main arguments adduced in support:
The applicant, an official in Grade B 4, who has been
working at the Joint Research Centre at Ispra since 2 May              The applicant, who is a member of the Economic and Social
 1967, points out that he has always carried out the duties             Committee ( ESC ), points out that Article 194 of the EC
relating to his post with professionalism and competence, as           Treaty provides that 'the members of the ( Economic and
amply demonstrated by the favourable assessments made in               Social ) Committee may not be bound by any mandatory
his staff reports until 1989 by the then Director . He states          instructions; they shall be completely independent in the
that the appointment of the successor to that Director was             performance of their duties, in the general interest of the
followed immediately by manifestly discriminatory                      Community ' and that ' the Council , acting by a qualified
attitudes and conduct detrimental to the applicant, resulting          majority , shall determine the allowances of members of the
in his gradual marginalization by means of allocating to him           Committee '. The applicant therefore maintains that, by not
wholly inappropriate duties with regard to his grade and the           determining the allowances in that manner, as provided by
professional qualifications he had in the meantime acquired .          the EC Treaty, the Council has infringed a clear provision of
Moreover, the applicant's numerous operational and                     Article 194 , as cited above, because members of the ESC
organizational proposals, which were regularly submitted               currently have no duty or service allowance ( by contrast
to his immediate superior, were essentially disregarded . His          with all other Community appointments ) and receive only a
staff report became gradually and unjustifiably worse to the           flat-rate reimbursement of expenses, which is totally
point that the report relating to the period 1 July 1991 to            inappropriate to the nature of the duties with which they are
30 June 1993 , which represents possibly the strongest                 entrusted and insufficient, moreover, to cover the expenses
expression, at least in documentary form, of the ostracism             actually incurred on each visit to Brussels .
referred to above, is particularly characterized by a number
of untrue statements and assessments which seriously harm              The applicant submits that when , in its provisions
the prestige and dignity of the official concerned , without           concerning the ESC, the Treaty lays down that ESC
their being in the least supported by any evidence but                 members may not be bound by any mandatory instructions,
characterized in particular by bald affirmations and a failure         its intention is indisputedly to affirm the principle that
to state reasons .
                                                                       members of the ESC exercise judgment independently and
                                                                       autonomously . Since, in order to carry out their task ,
On the basis of the foregoing the applicant claims that the            members of the ESC have a duty to act in accordance with
report relating to the period 1991 to 1993 is unlawful on the          their own convictions , which may lead them to maintain
following grounds:                                                     positions at variance with those adopted by the