(Officials – Temporary staff – Admissibility – Request within the meaning of Article 90(1) of the Staff Regulations – Principle of the protection of legitimate expectations – Alleged promise to recruit)

Application: brought under Articles 236 EC and 152 EA, in which Ms Neirinck seeks annulment of the implied decision rejecting her claim for damages and, so far as may be necessary, of the express decision rejecting her complaint, together with award of damages for the material and non-material loss sustained by her following the Commission’s breach of its alleged promise to recruit her to the Investigatory and Disciplinary Office.

Held: The action is dismissed. Each party is ordered to bear its own costs.

Summary

Officials – Principles – Protection of legitimate expectations

The fact that the head of a department has had contact with a candidate for a post as a member of the temporary staff in order to explore the possibility of including her in his team, and that he expressed his desire that she would be so included, does not create a legitimate expectation on the part of the candidate that she will be recruited, where the administration has issued no document setting out a genuine promise of recruitment, but, on the contrary, the person concerned has been informed by other officials with responsibility for recruitment of doubts concerning such a possibility.

(see paras 81-85)