Provisional text

JUDGMENT OF THE GENERAL COURT (Appeal Chamber)

4 May 2016

Case T‑129/14 P

Carlos Andres and Others

v

European Central Bank (ECB)

(Appeal — Civil service — ECB staff — Pensions — Reform of pension arrangements — Freezing of the retirement plan — Conditions of employment of ECB staff — Right to be consulted — Difference in nature between contractual employment relationship and employment relationship governed by the Staff Regulations — Distortion — Error of law)

Appeal:      against the judgment of the European Union Civil Service Tribunal (Second Chamber) of 11 December 2013 in Andres and Others v ECB (F‑15/10, EU:F:2013:194), seeking to have that judgment set aside.

Held:      The appeal is dismissed. Mr Carlos Andres and the other appellants whose names are set out in the annex are ordered to pay the costs.

Summary

1.      Acts of the institutions — Unalterable nature of acts after adoption — Amendment subject to compliance with the rules on competence and procedure

2.      Officials — Staff of the European Central Bank — Representation — Retirement plan oversight committee — Mandatory consultation — Scope — Obligation to provide the committee with all relevant information — Limits

(Protocol on the Statute of the European System of Central Banks and of the European Central Bank, Art. 10.4; Rules of Procedure of the European Central Bank, Art. 23.1)

3.      Social policy — Informing and consulting employees — Directive 2002/14 — Workers’ right to information and consultation within the undertaking — Scope

(Directive 2002/14 of the European Parliament and of the Council)

1.      The principle of legal certainty aims to ensure that situations and legal relationships governed by EU law remain foreseeable. To that end, it is essential that the EU institutions observe the principle that they may not alter measures which they have adopted and which affect the legal and factual situation of persons, so that they may amend such acts only in accordance with the rules on competence and procedure. Accordingly, the principle of legal certainty cannot, in itself, prevent the amendment of a legal rule.

(see para. 35)

See:

Judgments of 10 April 2003 in Schulin, C‑305/00, ECR, EU:C:2003:218, para. 58, and 15 September 2005 in Ireland v Commission, C‑199/03, EU:C:2005:548, para. 69

Judgment of 21 October 1997 in Deutsche Bahn v Commission, T‑229/94, ECR, EU:T:1997:155, para. 113 and the case-law cited therein

2.      The obligation to consult incumbent on the European Central Bank regarding a reform of its pension arrangements means that it must supply the Oversight Committee for the retirement plan with the relevant information throughout the consultation procedure, the objective being to enable the committee to participate in the consultation process as fully and effectively as possible. In order to do so, all new relevant information must be supplied to it by the Bank up until the last moment of that process.

Nonetheless, it does not follow either from the general scope of the Bank’s obligation to consult on the envisaged reform of its pension arrangements, or from the other provisions, specifically Article 6 of the Memorandum of Understanding on Relations between the Executive Board and the Staff Committee of the ECB and Article 30 of the Terms of Reference of the Retirement Plan Oversight Committee, that that obligation to consult enables the Bank to avoid its obligation to maintain the confidentiality of the documents concerned. On the contrary, as the Civil Service Tribunal observed, the Oversight Committee must participate in the consultation process as fully and effectively as possible, whereas, in accordance with the objective of Chapter II of the Memorandum of Understanding, information enabling the Staff Committee to familiarise itself with the subject-matter of a consultation must be presented to it in so far as there is no compelling reason to the contrary.

(see paras 57, 60)

3.      While the obligation to consult with employees’ representatives involves a duty on the part of the employer to supply or pass on, in accordance with Directive 2002/14 establishing a general framework for informing and consulting employees in the European Community, relevant information to the committees throughout the consultation process, which requires the employer to take positive action to that end, that obligation cannot be understood as requiring the employer to pass on to employees’ representatives any and all information which is available to them from other sources, in particular information which is in the public domain.

(see para. 76)