Keywords
Summary

Keywords

Officials - Rights and obligations - Freedom of expression - Application for permission to publish - Balance to be struck between an official's freedom of expression and the gravity of any prejudice to the interests of the Community as a result of publication - Obligation to state reasons

(Staff Regulations, Art. 17, second para.)

Summary

$$The second paragraph of Article 17 of the Staff Regulations clearly provides that, in principle, permission is to be granted and may be refused only in exceptional cases.

In so far as the provision enables institutions to refuse permission to publish, and thus potentially interfere to a serious extent with freedom of expression, one of the fundamental pillars of a democratic society, it must be interpreted restrictively, in such a way that permission to publish is refused only where publication is liable to cause serious harm to the Communities' interests.

When it applies the second paragraph of Article 17 of the Staff Regulations, the appointing authority must balance the various interests at stake, taking account, first, of the freedom that an official has to express, orally or in writing, opinions that dissent from or conflict with those held by the employing institution - that freedom arising from the fundamental right of the individual to express himself freely - and, second, of the gravity of the potential prejudice to the interests of the Communities to which publication of the relevant text might give rise. In that connection, only where there is a real risk of serious prejudice to the interests of the Communities, established on the basis of specific, objective evidence, may the risk be taken into consideration for the purpose of applying the second paragraph of Article 17 of the Staff Regulations.

In order to enable the Community courts to exercise their power of review as regards the legality of a decision refusing permission to publish and to provide the official concerned with sufficient information to enable him to understand the reasons for the decision, the official must be given such information with the decision refusing permission or, at the very latest, with the decision rejecting his complaint.

( see paras 17-20 )