ORDER OF THE CIVIL SERVICE TRIBUNAL
(Second Chamber)

7 July 2011

Case F-19/11

Mario Galvan

v

European Commission

(Civil service – Person claiming the status of official or other member of staff of the European Union – Actions – Manifest inadmissibility – Failure to comply with the pre-litigation procedure)

Application:      brought under Article 270 TFEU, applicable to the EAEC Treaty pursuant to Article 106a thereof, in which Mr Galvan, an employee of the Istituto Vigilanza Notturna Gallarate S.r.l., essentially asks the Tribunal to recognise his status as a member of the contract staff of the Commission, and more particularly of the Joint Research Centre (JRC), and, consequently, to order the Commission to pay the remuneration and other financial benefits which he claims are due to him in that capacity, as well as payment of damages for the harm he claims to have suffered.

Held:      The action is dismissed as manifestly inadmissible. The applicant is to bear his own costs.

Summary

Officials – Actions – Conditions for admissibility – Compliance with the prior administrative procedure

(Staff Regulations, Arts 90 and 91)

In the system of remedies laid down by Articles 90 and 91 of the Staff Regulations, first of all, an action before the Civil Service Tribunal must be directed against an act adversely affecting the applicant consisting either in a decision taken by the appointing authority or the authority empowered to conclude contracts of employment, or in the failure of either of those authorities to take a measure required by the Staff Regulations, and secondly, such an action is admissible only if the person concerned has first lodged a complaint against the act adversely affecting him with that authority, in accordance with Article 90(2) of the Staff Regulations, and if that complaint has been rejected by express or implied decision. Furthermore, where an official or other staff member, or even a person outside the institution, seeks to secure from the administration the adoption of a decision in relation to him, the prior administrative procedure must begin with a request from the person concerned, in accordance with Article 90(1) of the Staff Regulations, asking the appointing authority or the authority empowered to conclude contracts of employment to adopt the decision he seeks; the rejection of that request may then form the subject of a complaint.

(see para. 12)