CELEX: C2001/245/37
Language: en
Date: 2001-09-01 00:00:00
Title: Case T-127/01: Action brought on 12 June 2001 by C. Ripa di Meana against the European Parliament

1.9.2001                 EN                     Official Journal of the European Communities                                        C 245/23
Action brought on 12 June 2001 by C. Ripa di Meana                               ment with the amount which Italian Members of Parlia-
                against the European Parliament                                  ment receive from the Italian Parliament. Consequently,
                                                                                 the European Parliament should not be allowed to
                                                                                 restrict entitlement to retirement pensions by unlawfully
                           (Case T-127/01)
                                                                                 applying to its own Members the suspension of the
                                                                                 pension of Members of the national Parliament provided
                           (2001/C 245/37)                                       for in Article 12 of the Italian regulation;
                    (Language of the case: Italian)                        —     suspending the pension which the applicant receives on
                                                                                 account of services provided to the Parliament in the past,
                                                                                 and in respect of which he paid contributions, for the
An action against the European Parliament was brought before                     simple reason that he currently receives a salary from
the Court of First Instance of the European Communities on                       another ‘employer’, not only unfairly penalises him,
12 June 2001 by C. Ripa di Meana, represented by W. Viscar-                      but also results in unjust enrichment of the European
dini and G. Donà, Lawyers.                                                       Parliament;
The applicant claims that the Court should:
                                                                           —     the European Parliament manages an autonomous pen-
—     first, annul, pursuant to Article 230 of the EC Treaty, the                sion scheme and thus cannot have recourse to the
      decision of the European Parliament — section for                          intentions expressed by other political authorities in
      financial rules relating to Members — of 26 March 2001,                    connection with other autonomous pension schemes
      reference no 106721 (sent by ordinary post and received                    provided for other parties;
      by the applicant on 4 April 2001), informing him of the
      suspension, following his election to the Regional Council
      of Umbria, of the pension he received as a former Member             —     the Community legislation at issue does not prohibit
      of the European Parliament;                                                the accumulation of pensions due to Members of the
                                                                                 European Parliament with income earned from other
—     in the alternative, annul, pursuant to Article 230 of the EC               activities;
      Treaty, the decision of the European Parliament — section
      for financial rules relating to Members — of 26 March
      2001, reference no 106721, in so far as it concerns the
                                                                           —     in any event, even if application, by analogy, of Article 12
      suspension of his pension based in the legislation in force
                                                                                 of the Italian regulation is lawful, suspension of the
      between 1979 and 1984;
                                                                                 pension due to a former Member of the European
                                                                                 Parliament can only be justified if he is elected to his
—     in any event, order the European Parliament to pay all the                 national Parliament. It cannot be justified if he is elected
      costs of the action.                                                       to a regional council;
Pleas in law and main arguments                                            —     on 1 January 1998, when the Italian regulation came into
                                                                                 force, the applicant had already acquired his entitlement
                                                                                 to the pension by virtue of the legislation in force between
The applicant, who also brought Case T-83/99 (1), challenges                     1979 and 1984.
the European Parliament’s decision to suspend, following his
election to the Regional Council of Umbria, the pension which
he received as a former Member of the European Parliament.                 —     Consequently, even if application, by analogy, of
That decision was adopted on the basis of Article 12 of the                      Article 12 of the Italian regulation is lawful, the suspen-
Regolamento per gli Assegni Vitalizi dei Deputati (the Italian                   sion at issue in the present case is only justifiable in
regulation on life-annuities applicable to Members of the                        respect of pensions based on the legislation in force
Lower Chamber of the Italian Parliament). In this connection,                    between 1994 and 1999 and not in respect of pensions
it is apparent that Article 2(1) of Annex III to the Rules                       based on the legislation in force between 1979 and 1984.
Governing the Payment of Expenses and Allowances to
Members of the European Parliament refers to the Italian
regulation in so far as concerns the amount of, and detailed
procedures relating to, the provisional pension.
                                                                           (1) Joined Cases T-83/99, T-84/99 and T-85/99 Ripa di Meana and
                                                                               Others v European Parliament [2000] ECR II-3493.
In support of his claim, the applicant argues that:
—     Article 2(1) of Annex III does not refer, purely and simply,
      to the Italian regulation, but merely aligns the amount of
      the pension for Italian Members of the European Parlia-