CELEX: C1995/229/46
Language: en
Date: 1995-09-02 00:00:00
Title: Action brought on 20 May 1995 by Giampaolo Cordiale against the European Parliament (Case T-123/95)

No C 229/20            EN                 Official Journal of the European Communities                                      2 . 9 . 95
— Dual infringement of the second paragraph of Article 25                 from the effective date of dissolution of the relationship
    of the Staff Regulations: The second paragraph of                      until reinstatement, together with allowance for
    Article 25 of the Staff Regulations provides that any                  inflation and interest, and together also with
    decision relating to a specific individual must be                    compensation for psychological, non-material and
    communicated in writing to the official concerned and                 material damage ( which the applicant reserves the right
    that any decision adversely affecting an official must                to quantify in the course of the action ), together with
    state the grounds on which it is based. The facts, which               interest to be assessed in such manner as may be just;
    are indisputable and which the Commission itself
    accepts, disclose a dual infringement of that provision :
    the decision was not the subject of a formal act                 — order the European Parliament ( ELDR Group ) to pay
                                                                           the costs .
    communicated in writing and still less of a reasoned
    administrative act .
— Manifest injustice : Although the appointing authority             Pleas in law and main arguments adduced in support:
    has a broad discretion as regards the assignment of
     officials to particular duties or the revocation of such        The applicant, a former member of the temporary staff
     assignments, that discretion is nevertheless limited by         of the Group of the European Liberal Democratic and
    the duty to have regard to the interests of the service, to      Reformist Party, challenges the decision of the European
     accommodate as far as possible the interests of the             Parliament to terminate his indefinite contract, which was
     official and to comply with the relevant legal provisions       taken following a decision of the Bureau of the ELDR
     and principles . In the present case, the applicant was         Group, which gave as its reason that group's results in the
     praised and received expressions of appreciation, in            elections of June 1994 .
     flattering terms, during the years in which he performed
     the duties of CEO Project Manager; in those
     circumstances, the conduct of his superiors is at the very      According to the letter communicating the contested
     least inconsistent. The applicant further points out that       decision to the applicant, his dismissal was the result of the
     he was not assigned to another post, but simply left            reduction in the number of ELDR members after the
     without any clearly defined duties . From any point of          elections . In addition, as the internal composition of the
     view, the removal of the applicant from his post is both        group had changed, it had been found necessary to
     manifestly unjust and ill-founded.                              restructure its secretariat 'on a geographical basis'.
                                                                     The applicant points first to the absence of any reasons given
                                                                     in the contested decision .
                                                                     He also alleges disregard of the internal prior reconciliation
Action brought on 20 May 1995 by Giampaolo Cordiale                  procedure provided for in Article 11 of the Recruitment
                against the European Parliament                       Rules of the Bureau of the Parliament, which applies to 'any
                        ( Case T-123/95 )                             procedure for the termination of the contract of a member of
                          ( 95/C 229/46 )                             the temporary staff . Under that procedure, the Parliament
                                                                      is obliged to give the Staff Committee advance notice of the
                                                                      forthcoming dismissal of the applicant, in order to place the
                 (Language of the case: Italian)                      committee in a position to hear his views and make
                                                                      approaches to the relevant appointing authority.
An action against the European Parliament was brought
before the Court of First Instance of the European                    Finally, the applicant considers that the contested decision is
Communities on 20 May 1995 by Giampaolo Cordiale, a                   vitiated for manifest error and misuse of powers, since the
former member of the temporary staff of the European                  geographical reason is invalid . Even if the ELDR Group did
Parliament, resident at Messina ( Italy ), represented by             have one member less than before the 1994 elections, the
Jean-Noel Louis, of the Brussels Bar, and Alberto Panuccio,           number of Italian members nevertheless rose from three to
 of the Bar of Reggio di Calabria, with an address for service        seven. After the elections, France, with only one member in
 in Luxembourg at the offices of Fiduciaire Myson, 1 Rue              the ELDR Group, had four staff members; Germany, with
 Glesener .                                                           no member in the group, had two staff members; whilst
                                                                      Italy, which went from three members of the group to seven,
 The applicant claims that the Court should :                          had its staff participation reduced by one-third, with three
                                                                       staff members cut to two .
 — declare unlawful the termination of the indefinite
      temporary contract between the applicant and the                 It therefore follows that, far from equilibrium having been
      European Parliament ( Group of the European Liberal              restored, a disequilibrium has been created .
      Democratic and Reformist Party ( the ELDR Group ));
      consequently annul such termination, ordering the
      reinstatement of the applicant; order the European
      Parliament ( ELDR Group ) to pay all salary and benefits