(Officials – Member of the auxiliary staff – Conference interpreter – Article 74 of the Conditions of Employment of Other Servants – Termination of employment)

Full text in French II - 0000

Application: for, first, annulment of the Commission’s letters of 13 and 23 February 2001 informing the applicant that it was no longer possible to engage conference interpreters of more than 65 years of age and, second, damages.

Held: The application in Case T-153/01 is dismissed as inadmissible. In Case T-323/01 the decision of 23 February 2001 is annulled. The remainder of the application in Case T-323/01 is dismissed. The parties are ordered to bear their own costs in Case T-153/01. The Commission is ordered to pay all the costs in Case T‑323/01.

Summary

(Staff Regulations, Art. 91)

(Conditions of Employment of Other Servants, Arts 74 and 78)

(Staff Regulations, Arts 90 and 91)

(Staff Regulations, Art. 91)

That is true of a letter sent by the administration, in reply to an application, to a person previously awarded contracts as a freelance conference interpreter under Article 78 of the Conditions of Employment of Other Servants, which, while it does not refer to the specific situation of the individual concerned, must objectively be interpreted as expressing the institution’s refusal to engage that person again because of his age.

(see paras 56, 61-62)

See: T-562/93 Obst v Commission [1995] ECR-SC I‑A-247 and II-737, para. 23; T-87/99 Hendrickx v Cedefop [2000] ECR-SC I-A-147 and II-679, para. 37

In the case of a contract limited to specific days, termination of employment is a characteristic and necessary condition of the recruitment of the interpreter and forms an integral part of that recruitment. It follows that Article 74 of the Conditions of Employment of Other Servants concerning the situations in which the employment of auxiliary staff ceases has to be one of the provisions of Title III of the Conditions of Employment of Other Servants from which the rules applicable to auxiliary session interpreters derogate.

Furthermore, taking account of the particular nature of the employment of those interpreters, their age cannot be relevant for the performance of their duties, so that their employment should have an age limit which, in the absence of any specific provision, should be that laid down by Article 74 of the Conditions of Employment of Other Servants.

(see paras 82, 84-86, 89)

In the former case, the person concerned must submit a complaint against the act in question to the appointing authority within the prescribed period. In the latter case, on the other hand, the administrative procedure must commence with the introduction of a request within the meaning of Article 90(1) of the Staff Regulations for reparation and, where appropriate, be followed by a complaint against the decision rejecting the request.

Where there is a direct link between an action for annulment and an action for damages, the latter is admissible as ancillary to the action for annulment, without necessarily having to be preceded both by a request from the person concerned to the appointing authority for compensation for the damage allegedly suffered and by a complaint challenging the validity of the implied or express rejection of that request. However, where the damage alleged does not stem from an act whose annulment is sought, but from several wrongful acts or omissions alleged against the administration, it is imperative that the pre-litigation procedure should be initiated by a request that the appointing authority compensate for that damage.

(see paras 99-100, 102)

See: T-17/90, T-28/91 and T-17/92 Camara Alloisio and Others v Commission [1993] ECR II-841, para. 46; T-500/93 Y v Court of Justice [1996] ECR-SC I‑A‑335 and II-977, paras 64 and 66

(see para. 105)

See: 79/71 Heinemann v Commission [1972] ECR 579, para. 11; T-94/92 X v Commission [1994] ECR-SC I-A-149 and II‑481, para. 52

(see para. 106)

See: C-343/87 Culin v Commission [1990] ECR I-225, paras 25 to 29; T-60/94 Pierrat v Court of Justice [1995] ECR-SC I-A-23 and II-77, para. 62