Keywords
Summary

Keywords

++++

1 . Officials - Actions - Decision of a selection board - Prior administrative complaint - Optional nature - Submission of complaint - Consequences - Retention of the right to bring the matter directly before the Court - Conditions - Compliance with the time-limit within which an appeal may be filed

( Staff Regulations, Arts 90 and 91 )

2 . Officials - Duty of the administration to have regard for the interests of officials - Scope - Observance by selection boards - Principle of proper administration

3 . Officials - Recruitment - Competition - Competition based on qualifications and tests - Conditions of admission - Selection and submission of documents for the purpose of admission to the tests - Onus on the official alone where he is a candidate in a competition

( Staff Regulations, Annex III, Art . 2 )

4 . Officials - Recruitment - Competition - Competition based on qualifications and tests - Conditions of admission - Supporting documents - Request by selection board for additional information - Merely optional - No obligation to request submission of all documents required

( Staff Regulations, Annex III, Art . 2, second paragraph )

5 . Officials - Decision adversely affecting an official - Obligation to provide a statement of reasons - Purpose - Refusal of admission to a competition - Request for the decision to be reconsidered - Elaboration of the reasons originally given - No obligation

( Staff Regulations, Art . 25 )

6 . Officials - Actions - Action brought against a refusal to admit a person to a competition - Submissions based on the irregularity of the notice of competition not challenged in good time - Inadmissible

( Staff Regulations, Art . 91 )

Summary

1 . The legal remedy open in respect of a decision of a selection board normally lies in a direct application to the Court . A complaint against a decision of a selection board would appear to serve no purpose, since the institution concerned has no power to annul or amend decisions taken by a selection board . Consequently, an unduly restrictive interpretation of Article 91(2 ) of the Staff Regulations would merely result in a futile prolongation of the procedure .

If, nevertheless, the person concerned submits a complaint to the appointing authority, such a step, whatever its legal significance may be, cannot have the result of depriving him of his right to apply directly to the Court, since that is a right which the person concerned cannot renounce and which is therefore not capable of being affected by his individual behaviour .

Nevertheless, if the person concerned, after making a complaint, finally chooses to bring the matter directly before the Court, without awaiting a response to his complaint or the expiry of the period for such a response laid down by the Staff Regulations, it then becomes necessary to determine whether the action was indeed brought within that three-month period .

2 . Although it is not mentioned in the Staff Regulations, the duty of the administration to have regard for the interests of its officials, which is also incumbent upon a selection board, reflects the balance of the reciprocal rights and obligations in the relationship between a public authority and public servants . That duty, along with the principle of proper administration, implies in particular that when such an authority takes a decision concerning the position of an official, it should take into consideration all the factors which may affect its decision and that when doing so it should take into account not only the interests of the service but also those of the official concerned .

3 . Where a candidate in an open competition based on qualifications and tests is already an official, it is for him alone to decide which diplomas, qualifications and certificates of professional experience he intends to submit with his application form and it is not up to the personnel service to carry out such a task itself, given the risk of mistakes which this entails . Furthermore, it is not the function of the personnel service to send to the selection board the complete personal file of the individual in question, which contains many documents other than those which are required under the notice of competition, since this would impose a heavy practical burden on the selection board and would run counter to the principle of proper administration .

Similarly, the onus is in principle on a candidate in a competition to provide the selection board with all information and documents to enable it to check that the candidate satisfies the conditions laid down in the notice of competition . A selection board cannot be required to make enquiries itself in order to ensure that candidates satisfy all the conditions laid down in such a notice .

4 . It is quite clear from the second paragraph of Article 2 of Annex III to the Staff Regulations that that provision merely enables a selection board to request additional information from candidates if it is in doubt as to the exact significance of a document submitted, but that it can in no way be interpreted as imposing an obligation on the selection board to arrange for the submission to it of all documents which the notice of competition requires from candidates .

5 . The statement of reasons on which measures that may adversely affect officials are based must enable the official concerned to know why a decision was adopted in his regard in order that he may take the legal steps necessary to defend his rights and interests .

Where requests from candidates who have been eliminated from a competition seek not to obtain additional individual explanations but rather to persuade the selection board to reconsider its decision not to admit them to the competition, such requests do not oblige the selection board to give a fuller account of the reasons on which its original decisions were based .

6 . An official may not, in support of an action brought against a decision not to admit him to a competition, rely on submissions based on the alleged irregularity of the notice of competition, when he has failed to challenge in good time those provisions of the notice which he considers affect him adversely .