JUDGMENT OF THE EUROPEAN UNION

CIVIL SERVICE TRIBUNAL

(Single judge)

21 July 2016

Case F‑9/12 RENV

CC

v

European Parliament

(Civil service — Referral back to the Tribunal after setting aside — Action for damages — Non-contractual liability — Errors in the management of the list of suitable candidates — Open competition — Competition notice EUR/A/151/98 — Equal treatment — Measures for compliance with the judgment — European Ombudsman’s investigation)

Application:      under Article 270 TFEU, applicable to the EAEC Treaty pursuant to Article 106a thereof, in which CC seeks compensation for the harm caused to her by the various errors committed by the European Parliament in the management of the list of suitable candidates drawn up following open competition EUR/A/151/98 and on which she had been placed following the decision of the Director General for Personnel of the European Parliament of 17 May 2005.

Held:      The European Parliament is to pay CC the sum of EUR 12 000. The application is dismissed as to the remainder. The European Parliament is to bear its own costs and is ordered to pay the costs incurred by CC in Cases F‑9/12, T‑457/13 P and F‑9/12 RENV.

Summary

1.      EU law — Principles — Equal treatment — Concept — Length of the validity of a list of suitable candidates varying from one successful candidate in a competition to another

2.      Officials — Non-contractual liability of the institutions — Conditions — Unlawfulness — Damage — Causal link — Concept — Loss of the opportunity to be recruited — Burden of proof

(Art. 340(2) TFEU)

1.      The general principle of equal treatment is a fundamental principle of EU law under which comparable situations must not be treated differently unless such treatment is objectively justified. There is a breach of the principle of equal treatment where two categories of persons whose factual and legal situations are not essentially different receive different treatment or where different situations are treated in the same way.

Where the person concerned has had his name included on the list of suitable candidates in a competition for a shorter length of time than one of the other successful candidates in the competition, the principle of equal treatment has not been observed.

(see paras 89, 90, 93)

See:

Judgment of 20 February 2009 in Commission v Bertolete and Others, T‑359/07 P to T‑361/07 P, EU:T:2009:40, paras 37 and 38 and the case-law cited

2.      In respect of non-contractual liability, the European Union can be held liable for damage only if such damage is a sufficiently direct consequence of the wrongful conduct of one of its institutions, which means that the unlawful act committed by the institution to which that conduct can be attributed was the determining cause of the loss of opportunity.

Where the alleged damage results from a loss of opportunity, it is for the party claiming that damage to prove that the opportunity is real and that the loss of such an opportunity is indeed final.

(see paras 122-123)

See:

Judgments of 5 October 2004 in Sanders and Others v Commission, T‑45/01, EU:T:2004:289, para. 150; Eagle and Others v Commission, T‑144/02, EU:T:2004:290, para. 165; and of 6 June 2006 in Girardot v Commission, T‑10/02, EU:T:2006:148, para. 96

Judgment of 12 May 2011 in Missir Mamachi di Lusignano v Commission, F‑50/09, EU:F:2011:55, para. 179 and the case law cited