Judgment of the Civil Service Tribunal (Second Chamber) of 18 September 2014 — Cerafogli v ECB

(Case F-26/12) 1

(Civil service — ECB staff — Access of ECB staff to documents connected with their employment relationship — Rules applicable to requests from ECB staff — Pre-litigation procedure — Rule of correspondence — Plea of illegality raised for the first time in the action — Admissibility — Right to effective judicial protection — Consultation of the Staff Committee for the purpose of adopting rules applicable to requests from ECB staff for access to documents connected with their employment relationship)

Language of the case: English

Parties

Applicant: Maria Concetta Cerafogli (Frankfurt am Main, Germany) (represented by: S. Pappas, lawyer)

Defendant: European Central Bank (ECB) (represented by: A. Sáinz de Vicuña Barroso, E. Carlini and S. Lambrinoc, acting as Agents, assisted by B. Wägenbaur, lawyer)

Re:

Application for annulment of the ECB’s decision refusing to grant the applicant access to documents, and a claim for damages.

Operative part of the judgment

The Tribunal:

Annuls the decision of 21 June 2011 whereby the Deputy Director-General of the Directorate General for Human Resources, Budget and Organisation of the European Central Bank partially rejected the request for access to certain documents submitted by Ms Cerafogli on 20 May 2011;

Orders the European Central Bank to pay Ms Cerafogli EUR 1 000;

Dismisses the action as to the remainder;

Declares that the European Central Bank is to bear its own costs and orders it to pay the costs incurred by Ms Cerafogli.

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1 OJ C 184, 23.6.2012, p. 22.