Action brought on 7 July 2016 — Kingdom of Spain v European Parliament
(Case C-377/16)
Language of the case: Spanish
Parties
Applicant: Kingdom of Spain (represented by: M. J. García-Valdecasas Dorrego, acting as Agent)
Defendant: European Parliament
Form of order sought
The applicant claims that the Court should:
annul the Call for Expressions of Interest — Contract Staff — Function Group I — Drivers (F/M) — EP/CAST/S/16/2016. 1
order the European Parliament to pay the costs.
Pleas in law and main arguments
First plea: infringement of Articles 1 and 2 of Regulation 1/58, 2 Article 22 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union 3 (the Charter) and Article 1d of the Staff Regulations by imposing the restriction, which extends to the application form, that communication between EPSO and the applicant should be solely in English, French and German.
Second plea: infringement of Article 82 of the Conditions of Employment of other servants contained in the Staff Regulations, by requiring satisfactory knowledge of a second official language of the European Union when that knowledge is not necessary for the performance of the duties that the successful applicants will be called upon to carry out.
Third plea: infringement of Articles 1 and 6 of Regulation No 1/58, Article 22 of the Charter, Article 1d(1) and (6) of the Staff Regulations, and Article 82 of the Conditions of Employment of other servants, because the choice of second language is improperly restricted to solely three languages, namely English, French and German, to the exclusion of the other official languages of the European Union.
Fourth plea: the choice of English, French and German, as the second language of the call for expressions of interest, constitutes an arbitrary choice that gives rise to discrimination on the ground of language prohibited by Article 1 of Regulation 1/58, Article 22 of the Charter and Article 1d(1) and (6) of the Staff Regulations.
____________1 OJ 2016, C 131 A, p. 1.2 Council Regulation No 1 of 15 April 1958 determining the languages to be used by the European Economic Community (OJ 1958, 17, p.385), as last amended by Council Regulation (EU) No 517/2013 (
OJ 2013, L 158, p. 1).
3 OJ 2016, C 202, p. 389.