Action brought on 29 September 2006 - Bouis and Others v Commission

(Case F-113/06)

Language of the case: French

Parties

Applicants: Didier Bouis (Overijse, Belgium) and Others (represented by: S. Orlandi, A. Coolen, J.-N. Louis and E. Marchal, lawyers)

Defendant: Commission of the European Communities

Form of order sought

declare that Article 13 of the General Provisions for implementing Article 45 of the Staff Regulations (GPI) is unlawful;

annul the merit list and the list of officials promoted to grade A*13 in the 2005 promotion procedure, in so far as the applicants' names are not included;

annul the decisions to award transitional priority points to the applicants, in that these points are limited to one point per year of seniority in grade up to a maximum of 7 points without taking into account the real merits of the applicants;

annul the decisions to award to the applicants neither the priority points awarded by the Directors and Directors-General, nor the priority points awarded by the Promotion Committee, in particular in recognition of work undertaken in the interest of the institution in the 2003 and 2004 promotion procedures;

order the defendant to pay the costs.

Pleas in law and main arguments

In support of their application, the applicants submit that the contested decisions disregard the scope of Article 45 of the Staff Regulations, which imposes on the Appointing Authority the obligation to choose officials that are to be promoted essentially on the basis of a consideration of their comparative merits.

They also claim that Article 13 of the GPI, as interpreted and applied by the Commission, is unlawful, since it disregards the scope of the provision which it is supposed to implement as well as the general principle of equal treatment and non-discrimination.

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