CELEX: C2000/335/83
Language: en
Date: 2000-11-25 00:00:00
Title: Case T-184/00: Action brought on 13 July 2000 by Zisis Khristou Drouvis against the Commission of the European Communities

C 335/44              EN                     Official Journal of the European Communities                                    25.11.2000
Action brought on 13 July 2000 by Zisis Khristou Drouvis                Action brought on 11 September 2000 by the Inter-
  against the Commission of the European Communities                    national and European Public Services Organisation
                                                                        (IPSO) and the Union of Staff of the European Central
                                                                               Bank (USE) against the European Central Bank
                         (Case T-184/00)
                                                                                                (Case T-238/00)
                         (2000/C 335/83)
                                                                                                (2000/C 335/84)
                   (Language of the case: Greek)
An action against the Commission of the European Communi-                                 (Language of the case: German)
ties was brought before the Court of First Instance of the
European Communities on 13 July 2000 by Zisis Khristou
Drouvis, resident at Odos Parmenidou 7, Marousi, Attica,                An action against the European Central Bank was brought
Greece, represented by Ioannis Stamouolis, of the Athens Bar,           before the Court of First Instance of the European Communities
with an address for service in Luxembourg at the Chambers of            on 11 September 2000 by the International and European
Myriam Pierrat, 2 Place Winston Churchill, L-2014 Luxem-                Public Services Organisation (IPSO) and the Union of Staff of
bourg.                                                                  the European Central Bank (USE), Frankfurt am Main, Germ-
                                                                        any, represented by Christian Roth, Tanja Raab-Rhein and
                                                                        Michael Roth, Rechtsanwälte, Frankfurt am Main.
The applicant claims that the Court should:
—     hold his application lawful and well founded;                     The applicants claim that the Court should:
—     order the amendment of the measure of November 1999               —     annul the decision of the defendant of 7 July 2000,
      determining his pension, so that it is set at a rate equal to
      the rate for persons who establish their residence in the
      United Kingdom;
                                                                        —     order the defendant to pay the costs.
—     otherwise, and purely in the alternative, order the reset-
      ting of his pension at the level paid to persons who have
      established their residence in Belgium.
                                                                        Pleas in law and main arguments
Grounds for annulment and main arguments                                The applicants are trades unions which represent employees
                                                                        of the ECB. They seek the annulment of a letter of the Vice-
                                                                        President of the ECB refusing to act on certain requests from
The applicant challenges the measure determining his monthly            the applicants. The applicants had, in previous correspondence,
pension, to which the ‘weighting’ laid down for Greece was              requested the defendant, first, to revoke certain parts of its Staff
applied; that weighting is equal to 86,5 % of the pension paid          Rules, since, in the applicants’ submission, those provisions
to persons who have established their residence in Belgium,             inadmissibly restricted the staff’s right to strike. Second, the
who are entitled to 100 % of the resulting pension.                     applicants had requested that a provision be inserted in the
                                                                        Conditions of Employment for Staff of the ECB to enable the
                                                                        Conditions of Employment to be amended by collective
The applicant submits in that regard that Article 82 of the             agreements.
Staff Regulations, which requires pensions to be ‘weighted’
depending on the place where the pensioner proposes to
establish his residence, is contrary to the provisions of the           In the application it is submitted that the letter of the Vice-
European Convention on Human Rights, which constitute                   President should be regarded as a decision of the defendant.
‘general principles of Community law’ and offends against the           That decision infringes, in the performance of the contract,
principle of equal treatment and the applicant’s right to               applicable legal rules and fails to recognise, in particular, the
freedom of movement and establishment in the territory of               importance of the fundamental right of freedom of association.
the Member States of the Union; for those reasons it is invalid.        In the exercise of its discretion, the defendant has given
                                                                        consideration exclusively to its interests as an employer. It has
                                                                        thereby failed to appreciate that, in laying down its general
                                                                        Conditions of Employment, it must also take account of the
                                                                        rights of trades unions.