Notice for the OJ
Action brought on 18 November 2004 by Ms D. Beyatli and Mr A. Candan against the Commission of the European Communities
(Case T-455/04)
Language of the case: English
An action against the Commission of the European Communities was brought before the Court of First Instance of the European Communities on 18 November 2004 by Ms D. Beyatli, Nicosia, Cyprus and Mr A. Candan, Istanbul, Turkey, represented by Mr A. Demetriades, lawyer.
The applicants claim that the Court should:
- annul the Commission's Decision of 5 May 2004 declaring the applicants not successful in the written tests of the Open Competition for assistant administrators for Cypriot citizens EPSO/A/1/03;
- order the Commission to pay the costs.
Pleas in law and main arguments
The applicants are Cypriot nationals whose mother tongue is Turkish. They applied for a position of assistant administrator in the context of Open Competition EPSO/A/1/03 for Cypriot citizens. The notice of competition required that candidates have a thorough knowledge of the Greek language. The applicants failed to receive a sufficient number of points in test (e), which was in the Greek language, and were thus not admitted to the oral tests.
The applicants challenge this decision, submitting that the requirement that candidates should have a thorough knowledge of Greek is discriminatory, given that not all Cypriot citizens have Greek as their mother tongue. According to the applicants this requirement violates Article 12 EC and Articles 1d and 27 of the Staff Regulations. They further allege that Article 3 of Regulation 401/20041 limits recruitment only to those having one of the existing 11 official languages as their main language and is thus not proportionate with the objectives of the European Union and its intention to integrate Turkish speaking Cypriots within the European Union.
____________1 - Council Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 01/200 of 23 February 200 introducing, on the occasion of the accession of Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia, special temporary measures for recruitment of officials of the European Communities, OJ L 067 , 05/03/200 p.1