Keywords
Summary

Keywords

1. Actions for annulment – Right of action of the Member States – Action brought by a Member State against acts of an institution concerning its relations with its officials and agents

(Art. 230 EC; Staff Regulations, Art. 91)

2. Actions for annulment – Actionable measures – Measures producing binding legal effects

(Art. 230, first para., EC; Staff Regulations, Art. 29(2))

3. Actions for annulment – Time-limits – Point from which time starts to run

(Art. 230, fifth para., EC)

4. European Communities – Rules on languages – No general principle establishing the right of each citizen to have every act capable of affecting his interests drafted in his own language

(Arts 290 EC and 314 EC; Council Regulation No 1)

5. Officials – Recruitment – Vacancy notice – Publication in the Official Journal only in certain official languages

Summary

1. If the conditions for Article 230 EC to apply are met it is possible for applicants not covered by Article 91 of the Staff Regulations of Officials, that is to say applicants who are neither Community officials or other servants nor candidates for a post in the European Civil Service, to bring an action under that provision for annulment of Commission acts concerning the European Civil Service. The right of a Member State to bring an action for annulment under Article 230 EC against a decision of the Commission producing legal effects therefore cannot be called in question on the ground that those acts concern issues relating to the European Civil Service.

(see paras 27-28)

2. Neither Article 29(2) of the Staff Regulations, which allows each institution to adopt a recruitment procedure other than the competition procedure for the recruitment of senior officials, nor any other provision preclude an institution adopting, prior to carrying out a specific procedure for filling a senior management post, general implementing rules making definitive provision for at least some aspects of the procedure to be followed when recruiting senior management staff within that institution. Such rules produce binding legal effects inasmuch as the institution concerned cannot, unless those rules are amended or repealed, depart from them during the process of recruitment to a specific post in that category. In such a case, a privileged applicant such as a Member State can immediately challenge the legality of those rules by an action for annulment under Article 230 EC without having to wait for them to be applied in a particular case.

Vacancy notices, in that they determine, by defining the conditions relating to eligibility for the post, which persons’ applications are likely to be accepted, are acts which adversely affect the potential candidates whose applications are excluded under those conditions.

(see paras 46, 55)

3. Failing publication or notification, it is for a party who has knowledge of a decision concerning it to request the whole text thereof within a reasonable period. Subject thereto, the period for bringing an action can begin to run only from the moment when the third party concerned acquires precise knowledge of the content of the decision in question and of the reasons on which it is based in such a way as to enable it to exercise its right to bring an action. Where it is not possible to ascertain with any certainty the date on which the plaintiff first knew exactly what was in the measure that it is contesting and what were the reasons on which it was based, the period prescribed for initiating proceedings must be considered to have begun to run, at the latest, from the date on which it can be established that the plaintiff had such knowledge.

(see paras 68, 70)

4. The numerous references in the EC Treaty to the use of languages in the European Union, including in particular Articles 290 EC and 314 EC, cannot be regarded as evidencing a general principle of Community law that confers a right on every citizen to have a version of anything that might affect his interests drawn up in his language in all circumstances. Nor can such a principle be inferred from Regulation No 1 determining the languages to be used by the European Economic Community.

(see paras 116-117)

5. If an institution decides to publish the full text of a vacancy notice for a senior management post in the Official Journal only in certain languages it must, in order to avoid discriminating on grounds of language between candidates potentially interested in the notice, adopt appropriate measures to inform all the candidates of the existence of the vacancy notice concerned and the editions in which it has been published in full. Provided that condition is met, publication in the Official Journal of a vacancy notice in the category covered by the decision in a limited number of languages is not likely to lead to discrimination between the various candidates if it is agreed that the latter have an adequate knowledge of at least one of those languages and are thus able duly to acquaint themselves with the content of that notice. However, publication of the text of the vacancy notice in the Official Journal in only some Community languages, when persons who have a knowledge only of other Community languages are entitled to submit an application, is likely, in the absence of other measures to enable that category of potential candidates duly to acquaint themselves with the content of that notice, to result in discrimination against them. In that situation, the candidates in question would be in a less advantageous position in relation to the other candidates, since they would not be in a position duly to acquaint themselves with the qualifications required by the vacancy notice and the conditions and procedural rules for recruitment. That is a prerequisite for submitting an application in the best way, to maximise their chances of being accepted for the post concerned.

(see paras 130-131, 135-136)