CELEX: C1995/299/30
Language: en
Date: 1995-11-11 00:00:00
Title: Action brought on 15 September 1995 by Paolo Carrer against the Court of Justice of the European Communities (Case T-170/95)

11 . 11 . 95          EN                   Official Journal of the European Communities                                 No C 299/ 17
( EEC ) No 193/82 and which together hold about 92% of                The applicant claims that the Court should :
the production quotas assigned to Italy as a whole, challenge
the new rules for the sugar sector in as much as they provide         — annul the Commission 's decision to regard the
for the total elimination of the aids to the Italian industry             applicant's absence from work between 8 and 23 August
which had been permitted until the 1994/95 marketing year                  1994 as unauthorized and to impute 10 days against his
while at the same time maintaining in force the system                    annual holiday entitlement,
whereby in deficit areas ( being those in which production is
lower than consumption ( sugar manufacturers pay a higher             — order the Commission to pay the costs .
minimum price for beet than that paid by manufacturers in
non-deficit areas . That difference, like the corresponding           Pleas in law and main arguments adduced in support:
difference between the intervention price and the derived
intervention price for sugar, is referred to as regionalization ,     The applicant challenges the Commission 's determination
and its original purpose was to allow producers in countries          that his absence from work during the second and third
with a surplus to supply deficit countries , covering the             weeks of August 1994 was unauthorized .
higher transport costs necessary .
                                                                      He states that it was not until he became aware of the
Given that Italy is not a deficit country, the fact that              contested decision of 21 September 1994 that he was told
regionalized prices are applied indicates, in the applicants'         that the Commission 's medical officer had concluded that
submission , that the arrangement has lost its original               the cessation of work prescribed by his attending doctor was
function and become a gratuitous and undue benefit for beet           unjustified , and that he should have resumed work
growers, entirely at the cost and to the enormous and                 immediately .
unwarranted detriment of Italian sugar manufacturers, who
are no longer compensated by the receipt of aids . In order to        The applicant considers that the institution 's medical
maintain the coherence of the system, abolition of the aids           officer, being merely a general practitioner engaged at given
and abolition of the regionalized prices should have gone             times to perform specific functions , had no jurisdiction in
hand in hand under the new system .                                   the matter beyond submitting a report to the appointing
                                                                      authority as to the validity of the medical certificate; only the
In the applicants' submission, the new Community rules :              institution had the authority to form the opinion that sick
                                                                      leave prescribed by an attending doctor was not binding
— infringe Article 40 of the EEC Treaty, which excludes               upon it and to order an official to resume work immediately .
     any discrimination between producers within the                  Moreover, pursuant to Article 25 of the Staff Regulations,
     Community and provides that any common price policy              such a decision must be communicated to the official
     is to be based on common criteria and uniform methods            concerned immediately in writing, which was not done in
     of calculation ,                                                 this case .
— are contrary to Articles 30 and 34 of the EEC Treaty,               The applicant also claims that he sent the Commission a
     since the mechanism in question places unjustified               medical certificate from his doctor prescribing cessation of
     obstacles to applying free market principles to Italian          work from 25 July to 19 August 1994 , and that under
     producers,                                                       Article 59 of the Staff Regulations he was therefore
                                                                      automatically entitled to sick leave . Although Article 59
— introduces a ' masked' aid to Italian growers , exclusively         permits the institution to require the applicant to undergo a
     at the expense of Italian sugar producers .                      medical examination, it does not authorize it, in the event of
                                                                      the medical officer disputing the validity of the medical
                                                                      certificate produced, to disregard that certificate and order
                                                                      the official concerned to resume work .
 Action brought on 8 September 1995 by Agustin Qui) ano
   against the Commission of the European Communities
                        ( Case T-l 69/95 )                            Action brought on 15 September 1995 by Paolo Carrer
                          ( 95/C 299/29 )                              against the Court of Justice of the European
                                                                                                Communities
                                                                                             ( Case T-170/95 )
                 (Language of the case: French)
                                                                                               ( 95/C 299/30 )
 An action against the Commission of the European
 Communities was brought before the Court of First                                    (Language of the case: Italian)
 Instance of the European Communities on 8 September
  1995 by Agustin Quijano, resident in Luxembourg,                     An action against the Court of Justice of the European
 represented by Jean-Noel Louis, Thierry Demaseure and                 Communities was brought before the Court of First
 Ariane Tornel , all of the Brussels Bar, with an address for          Instance of the European Communities on 15 September
 service in Luxembourg at the offices of Fiduciaire Myson              1995 by Paolo Carrer, an official of the Court of Justice ,
 Sari , 1 Rue Glesener.                                                residing at Kehlen, Luxembourg, represented by Roberta
 ---pagebreak---  No C 299/ 1 8           EN                  Official Journal of the European Communities                                   11 . 11 . 95
 Borlandi , of the Genoa Bar, with an address for service in            linguistic knowledge was based on his poor knowledge of a
 Luxembourg at the office of Marisa Ruggeri Montanelli ,                second foreign language . That , however, constituted a
 6 Rue de l'Fxole , Nospelt .                                           manifest breach by the Selection Board of the spirit of the
                                                                        notice of competition . Although knowledge of a second
                                                                        foreign language could be taken into consideration and thus
 The applicant claims that the Court should :
                                                                        confer higher marks , the absence of such knowledge could
                                                                        not in any way justify a mark less than 50% of the
 — annul at least the oral test of Internal Competition No              maximum , since that knowledge was not a requirement for
      CJ 51 /93 ' administrative assistants '1 for the constitution     admission .
      of a reserve list of administrative assistants ( m/fi of
      Grade B 5 / B 4 ,
 — annul the consequent decisions of the appointing
      authority concerning the reserve list drawn up by the
      Selection Board ,
— annul the decision of the Complaints Committee ,                     Action brought on 22 September 1995 by Tidningen
      communicated to the applicant on 21 June 1995 ,                  Journalisten, Svenska Journalistforbundets Tidning, against
      rejecting his complaint lodged on 14 March 1995 ( Cont .                       the Council of the European Union
      5 / 95 R ),                                                                               ( Case T- 174 /95 )
                                                                                                  ( 95 /C 299/31 )
— order the Court of Justice to pay the costs .
                                                                                       (Language of the ease : English)
 Picas in law and main arguments adduced in support:
The applicant bases his action on the irregularities which             An action against the Council of the European Union was
vitiated the oral test in which he took part .                         brought before the Court of Eirst Instance of the European
                                                                       Communities on 22 September 1995 by Tidningen
According to the notice of competition , that oral test was to         Journalisten , Svenska Journalistforbundets Tidning,
consist of a discussion with the Selection Board to enable it          represented by Onno W. Brouwer and Frederic P. Louis
to assess : ( a ) the knowledge and professional experience of         with an address for service in Luxembourg at the Chambers
candidates and the level of their linguistic knowledge ; and           of Me Marc Loesch , 1 1 , rue Goethe .
( b ) the attitude and motivation of candidates and their
fitness for the duties to be performed . It follows                     I he applicant claims that the Court should :
unequivocally from that statement that the test must
constitute a genuine dialogue between the candidate and the
members of the Selection Board , and must be conducted in              — annul the Council 's decision of 6 July 1995 , refusing to
the first language chosen by the candidate, except of course                grant access to the documents requested by the
in so far as the examination of linguistic knowledge is                     applicant,
concerned .
                                                                       — order the Council to pay the applicant's costs pursuant
At the applicant's oral test, the members of the Selection                  to Article 87 of the Rules of Procedure of the Court of
Board read the questions they put, thereby demonstrating                    First Instance , including the costs of any interveners .
that they were unable either to put the questions
spontaneously or, through not having prepared them in
advance, to add new questions or ask for clarification of the          Pleas in law and main arguments adduced in support:
replies given by the candidate . In those circumstances , the
applicant has reason to doubt the fitness of the members of            The applicant, the weekly , non-profit-making magazine of
the Selection Board to conduct the oral test in Italian and to         the Swedish Union of Journalists , seeks the annulment of a
conclude that assessments made and marks awarded bv the                refusal by the Council of the European Union to grant access
Selection Board might well have been affected by linguistic            to certain documents which were requested in the context of
considerations . In any event, they were made in a context of          Council Decision 93 /731 /EC of 20 December 1993 on
disparity between candidates , some of whom spoke in                   public access to Council documents .
languages which the members of the Selection Board knew
perfectly , thereby enabling a genuine dialogue to take place ,        The applicant explains that , on 6 July 1995 , the Council
as had been precluded from happening in the applicant 's               refused to grant it access to 16 out of the 20 documents
case .
                                                                       relating to Europol which had been requested by it, stating
                                                                       that the divulgation of such documents would damage the
As for the assessment of his linguistic knowledge, and in              public interest, and specifically public security, and that
particular his knowledge of official languages of the                  those documents relate to the Council 's proceeding,
European Union other than Italian , the applicant maintains            including the positions taken by members of the Council ,
that, judging by the reply to his complaint by the                     and fell therefore within the scope of the duty of
Complaints Committee , the insufficient mark given for                 confidentiality .