Notice for the OJ

 

Action brought on 6 October 2003 by Gabrielle Clotuche against Commission of the European Communities

    (Case T-339/03)

    (Language of the case: French)

An action against the Commission of the European Communities was brought before the Court of First Instance of the European Communities on 6 October 2003 by Gabrielle Clotuche, residing in Brussels, represented by Pierre-Paul Van Gehuchten, Gilbert Demez Jacques Sambon, lawyers.

The applicant claims that the Court should:

(annul the decision of the Commission of 9 July 2003 to reassign the applicant by transfer in the interest of the service from her post as Director of the Social Statistics Directorate at Eurostat to a post as Principal Adviser at Eurostat;

(annul the decision of the Commission of 1 October 2003 fixing the new organigram of DG ESTAT in so far as it does not thereby constitute a reassignment of the applicant where another individual reassignment measure is ordered in addition;

(order the Commission to pay her EUR 25 000 by way of compensation for the non-material damage suffered as a result of irregular conduct;

(order the Commission to pay the costs in their entirety.

Pleas in law and main arguments

The applicant, a Commission official, was transferred on 16 January 2003 to Eurostat as Director of the Social Statistics Directorate. On 9 July 2003, in view of the serious irregularities which allegedly took place in Eurostat, the Commission decided to move all Eurostat's directors, including the applicant, to posts as Principal Advisers. On 1 October 2003, the Commission decided on a new structure for the reformed DG ESTAT departments and decided that, in principle, it would open applications for the posts in the new directorates to both external and internal applicants, without taking account of the applicant. The applicant contests both those decisions claiming that the alleged irregularities within Eurostat took place until 2001 at the latest, while she was not posted there until 2003 and was thus not involved in them. In support of her application, she alleges infringement of Articles 4, 7, 24, 25 and 47 of the Staff Regulations, breach of the principle of equal treatment and of prohibition of discrimination, the principle of sound administration, the principles "audi alteram partem" and "patere legem", manifest error of assessment, abuse of process and misuse of powers.

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