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Language of document : ECLI:EU:F:2013:139

JUDGMENT OF THE EUROPEAN UNION CIVIL SERVICE TRIBUNAL

(First Chamber)

1 October 2013

Case F‑82/11

Nicolaos Loukakis

European Parliament

(Civil service — Parliament Staff Committee — Elections –Irregularities in the electoral process)

Application: under Article 270 TFEU, applicable to the EAEC Treaty pursuant to Article 106a thereof, by Mr Loukakis and 18 other applicants against the European Parliament concerning its failure to censure the irregularities affecting the Staff Committee elections of November 2010.

Held: The implied decision of the European Parliament of 20 May 2011 not to censure the irregularities affecting the Staff Committee elections of November 2010 is annulled. The remainder of the action is dismissed. The European Parliament is to bear its own costs and is ordered to pay the costs incurred by the applicants. The trade union organisations Solidarité pour les agents et fonctionnaires européens, Syndicat général du personnel des organismes européens, Fédération de la fonction publique européenne, on the one hand, and the trade union organisation Pluralist, on the other, are to bear their own costs.

Summary

1. Officials — Representation — Staff Committee — Elections — European Parliament — Quorum required at the end of the first ballot not attained — Obligation to organise a second ballot — Option of extending the first ballot — Condition — Existence of a legitimate reason

(Staff Regulations, Annex II, Art. 1, fifth para.; Rules Governing Representation of the Staff of the European Parliament, Rule 6(6)-(8))

2. Officials — Representation — Staff Committee — Elections — European Parliament — Obligation for the Committee of Tellers to set up polling stations — Scope

(Staff Regulations, Annex II, Art. 1; Rules Governing Representation of the Staff of the European Parliament, Rule 11(1))

3. Officials — Representation — Staff Committee — Elections — European Parliament — Obligation for the Committee of Tellers to provide voters with full details of when and where the votes will be counted — Scope

(Staff Regulations, Annex II, Art. 1; Rules Governing Representation of the Staff of the European Parliament, Rule 15)

4. Officials — Representation — Staff Committee — Elections — European Parliament — Obligation for the Committee of Tellers to publish details of the results of the ballot — Scope

(Staff Regulations, Annex II, Art. 1; Rules Governing Representation of the Staff of the European Parliament, Rule 18(1), (2) and (4))

1. The fifth paragraph of Article 1 of Annex II to the Staff Regulations and Rule 6(6)-(8) of the Rules Governing Representation of the Staff of the European Parliament make it compulsory to hold a second or even third ballot where, at the end of the first ballot and second ballot respectively, the required quorum, set at two-thirds of voters and the majority of voters respectively, has not been attained.

While those provisions cannot be interpreted as denying the General Meeting the option of deciding, before expiry of the time-limit initially fixed for its organisation, to extend the first ballot, that option is, however, subject to there being a legitimate reason for doing so. In that regard, a reason which is not unexpected in nature, such as the holding of the first ballot during a holiday period, may not be regarded as a legitimate reason.

(see paras 60-61, 63-64)

2. The fact that the site at Strasbourg is the least frequented of the European Parliament’s main places of work is not such as to permit the Committee of Tellers to avoid compliance with the obligation expressly laid down by Rule 11(1) of the Rules Governing Representation of the Staff of the European Parliament to set up polling stations in the institution’s three main places of work.

(see para. 72)

3. It follows implicitly but necessarily from Rule 15 of the Rules Governing Representation of the Staff of the European Parliament, the purpose of which is to enable voters to check that the process of counting the votes has been conducted properly, that the Committee of Tellers is required to provide voters, giving them adequate notice, with full details of when and where that process is to take place.

(see para. 83)

4. It follows from a combined reading of Rule 18(1), (2) and (4) of the Rules Governing Representation of the Staff of the European Parliament that publication of the list of those elected to the Staff Committee, provided for in paragraph 2, must necessarily go hand in hand with the dissemination by the Committee of Tellers of all the information referred to in paragraph 1 relating in particular to the number of votes cast for each list and each candidate, the percentage received by each list and the number of votes cast by proxy. Since the list of those elected is necessarily determined by the number of votes cast for each list and each candidate, the percentage received by each list and the number of votes cast by proxy, voters would not be in a position to judge whether it was appropriate to lodge a complaint, on the basis of Rule 18(4) of those Rules, within the minimum period of ten working days after publication of the list of those elected if the information referred to above were not brought to their attention.

(see para. 90)