Case T-117/08

Italian Republic

v

European Economic and Social Committee (EESC)

(Rules on the use of languages – Vacancy notice concerning the recruitment of the Secretary-General of the EESC – Publication in three official languages – Information relating to the vacancy notice – Publication in all official languages – Action for annulment – Admissibility – Articles 12 EC and 290 EC – Article 12 of the CEOS – Regulation No 1)

Summary of the Judgment

1.      European Union Law – Principles – Right to effective judicial protection

(Art. 230, first para., EC)

2.      European Communities – Rules on languages – Regulation No 1

(Art. 290 EC; Council Regulation No 1, Art. 6)

3.      European Communities – Rules on languages – Regulation No 1

(Council Regulation No 1, Arts 1, 4 and 5)

4.      European Communities – Rules on languages

5.      Officials – Recruitment – Vacancy notice – Publication in the Official Journal only in some official languages

(Art. 12 EC)

1.      The European Community is a community based on the rule of law and the Treaty has established a complete system of legal remedies and procedures designed to permit the Court of Justice to review the legality of measures adopted by the institutions. The general scheme of the Treaty is to make a direct action available against all measures adopted by the institutions which are intended to have legal effects. The general principle to be elicited from that judgment is that any act adopted by a body of the European Union, such as the Economic and Social Committee which is intended to have legal effects vis-à-vis third parties, must be amenable to review by the Courts.

It is true that the Economic and Social Committee is not one of the institutions referred to in Article 230 EC. Nevertheless, a body such as the Committee has a power to adopt acts which produce legal effects, such as vacancy notices. By defining the conditions relating to eligibility for the post, such acts determine which persons’ applications are likely to be accepted, and are therefore acts which adversely affect the potential candidates whose applications are excluded under those conditions. Accordingly, it cannot be acceptable, in a community based on the rule of law, that such acts escape all review by the Courts.

It follows that acts adopted by the Economic and Social Committee, such as vacancy notices, intended to have legal effects vis-à-vis all the candidates whose applications are excluded under the conditions laid down constitute acts which may be challenged.

(see paras 30-33)

2.      Regulation No 1 determining the languages to be used by the institutions was adopted by the Council under Article 290 EC. Article 6 of that regulation expressly permits the institutions to stipulate in their rules of procedure which of the languages are to be used in specific cases, in the exercise of which power they should moreover be granted a certain degree of operational autonomy in order to ensure their proper functioning. In those circumstances, the choice of the language to be used for internal communications is the responsibility of those institutions, which are entitled to impose that choice on their employees and those which seek that status.

(see paras 41, 55)

3.      Articles 1, 4 and 5 of Regulation No 1 determining the languages to be used by the institutions do not apply to relations between the institutions and their officials and other servants since they lay down only the language rules applying between the institutions and a Member State or a person coming under the jurisdiction of one of the Member States. The same is therefore true of relations between the bodies, such as the Economic and Social Committee, and the officials and other servants of the Communities.

(see para. 51)

4.      The numerous references in the EC Treaty to the use of languages cannot be regarded as evidencing a general principle of Community law that confers a right on every citizen to have a version of anything that might affect his interests drawn up in his language in all circumstances. There is no provision or principle of Community law requiring that vacancy notices should routinely be published in the Official Journal of the European Union in all the official languages.

(see paras 70-71)

5.      If the Economic and Social Committee decides to publish the full text of a vacancy notice for a senior staff post in the Official Journal of the European Union only in certain languages it must, in order to avoid discriminating on grounds of language between candidates potentially interested in the notice, adopt appropriate measures to inform all the candidates of the existence of the vacancy notice concerned and the editions in which it has been published in full. Provided that condition is met, publication in the Official Journal of a vacancy notice in a limited number of languages is not likely to lead to discrimination between the various candidates if it is agreed that the latter have an adequate knowledge of at least one of those languages and are thus able duly to acquaint themselves with the content of that notice. On the other hand, publication of the text of the contested vacancy notice in the Official Journal in only some official languages, when persons who have a knowledge only of other official languages are entitled to submit an application, is likely, in the absence of other measures to enable that category of potential candidates duly to acquaint themselves with the content of that notice, to result in discrimination against them. In that situation, the candidates in question would be in a less advantageous position in relation to the other candidates, since they would not be in a position duly to acquaint themselves with the qualifications required by the vacancy notice and the conditions and procedural rules for recruitment. Such knowledge is a prerequisite for submitting an application in the best way, to maximise their chances of being accepted for the post concerned.

(see paras 74-75, 78-79)