Keywords
Summary

Keywords

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1. Officials ° Actions ° Defendant ° Institution to which the official is attached

(Staff Regulations, Art. 2)

2. Privileges and immunities of the European Communities ° Officials and servants of the Communities ° Private legal relationships subject to national law ° Attachment of an official' s remuneration ordered by a national court ° Obligations of the institution concerned

(Protocol on the Privileges and Immunities of the European Communities, Art. 1; Staff Regulations, Art. 23, first para.)

3. Procedure ° Action brought by a natural or legal person for a declaration that a Member State has infringed Community law ° Lack of jurisdiction of the Community judicature ° Inadmissibility

(EC Treaty, Art. 164 et seq.)

Summary

1. The appointing authority acts in the name of the institution which designated it, so that acts which concern the legal position of officials and may adversely affect them must be attributed to the institution to which they are attached, and any appeal must be brought against the institution from which the act having an adverse effect emanated.

2. The privileges and immunities accorded to officials by the Protocol on the Privileges and Immunities of the European Communities, solely in the interests of the Communities, have a purely functional character inasmuch as they are intended to avoid any interference with the functioning and independence of the Communities. In private legal relationships with other private individuals, officials are, in accordance with the first paragraph of Article 23 of the Staff Regulations, fully subject to the applicable national law, without prejudice to the provisions of that Protocol.

When, in the context of attachment proceedings before a national court, a third party seeks to attach an official' s remuneration in the hands of an institution in its capacity as employer, that institution must, first, determine whether the privileges and immunities provided for by the Protocol are applicable to the proceedings in question and, if so, then decide to what extent it considers it appropriate to avail itself of them.

If the institution considers that it would not be contrary to the interests of the Community not to avail itself of its privileges and immunities, it is bound, by virtue of its duty to cooperate in good faith with the national authorities, to give effect to the attachment order issued by the national court.

3. The Treaty does not make any provision for a legal remedy enabling natural or legal persons to bring proceedings before the Community judicature on an issue regarding the compatibility of the conduct of the authorities of a Member State with Community law. Claims seeking a declaration that a Member State has infringed Community law are accordingly inadmissible.