CELEX: C2003/146/51
Language: en
Date: 2003-06-21 00:00:00
Title: Case C-164/03: Action brought on 9 April 2003 by the Commission of the European Communities against the Republic of Austria

21.6.2003                EN                        Official Journal of the European Union                                         C 146/31
      —     in the call for applications for the position of               Action brought on 9 April 2003 by the Commission
            Secretary to the General Administration, as con-               of the European Communities against the Republic of
            dition No 9: ‘Thorough knowledge of English and                                               Austria
            French would be an asset, as well as a satisfactory
            knowledge of other Community languages’.
                                                                                                    (Case C-164/03)
      —     in the call for applications for the position of IT-
            informatics expert (webmaster) of the European
            judicial network, as condition No 6: ‘Good know-                                        (2003/C 146/51)
            ledge of English is essential; in particular, the ability
            to speak at least two additional official European
            Community languages, including French, would be
            an asset’.
                                                                           An action against the Republic of Austria was brought before
2.    order the defendant body to pay the costs.                           the Court of Justice of the European Communities on 9 April
                                                                           2003 by the Commission of the European Communities,
                                                                           represented by Dr Ulrich Wölker, Commission Legal Adviser,
                                                                           and Florence Simonetti, a national civil servant available to the
                                                                           Commission Legal Service under an exchange scheme, with an
                                                                           address for service in Luxembourg.
Pleas in law and main arguments
—     Breach of the Staff Regulations and of the Conditions
      of Employment of Other Servants of the European                      The Commission claims that the Court should:
      Communities
                                                                           1.    declare that, by failing to adopt, or to communicate to
      According to Article 30 of Council Decision 2002/                          the Commission, the laws, regulations and administrative
      187/JHA of 28 February 2002 establishing Eurojust to                       provisions necessary in order to implement Council
      strengthen the fight against serious forms of crime ( 1),                  Directive 97/11/EC of 3 March 1997 amending Directive
      Eurojust staff are to be subject to the rules and regulations              85/337/EEC on the assessment of the effects of certain
      applicable to the officials and other servants of the                      public and private projects on the environment (1) in the
      European Communities.                                                      provinces of Burgenland and Salzburg, the Republic of
                                                                                 Austria has failed to fulfil its obligations under that
      Under Article 12 of the Conditions of Employment,                          directive;
      candidates are only required to have a thorough know-
      ledge of one language and a satisfactory knowledge of
      another.                                                             2.    order the Republic of Austria to pay the costs.
—     Breach of the linguistic rules of Eurojust
      Article 31 of Council Decision 2002/187/JHA provides
      that the official linguistic arrangements of the Union are           Pleas in law and main arguments
      to apply to Eurojust proceedings. No provision of the
      decision expressly states that the working languages of
      Eurojust are to be English and French.
                                                                           In accordance with the third paragraph of Article 249 EC,
                                                                           which provides that a directive is binding as to the result to be
—     Breach of the principle of non-discrimination                        achieved upon each Member State, the Member States are
                                                                           obliged to comply with the time-limit for implementation laid
      The requirement that part of the documents to be                     down in directives. The period for implementation laid down
      submitted should be drawn up in English and, most of                 in Article 3(1) of Directive 97/11/EC expired on 14 March
      all, the requirement of excellent knowledge of English               1999 without the Republic of Austria having adopted the
      and French amounts to clear discrimination grounds of                necessary provisions for the provinces of Burgenland and
      nationality, prohibited by Article 12 EC.                            Salzburg.
( 1) OJ 2002 L 63, p. 1.                                                   (1 ) OJ L 73, 14.3.1997, p. 5.