17.10.2016

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 383/16

(Case T-401/16)

(2016/C 383/22)

Language of the case: Spanish

Parties

Applicant: Kingdom of Spain (represented by: S. Centeno Huerta and M. García-Valdecasas Dorrego, Agents)

Defendant: European Commission

Form of order sought

The applicant claims that the General Court should:

—annul the notice of open competition EPSO/AD/323/16 — Investigators (AD 7) and EPSO/AD/324/16 — Investigators (AD 9): Team leaders;

—order the Commission to pay the costs.

Pleas in law and main arguments

In support of its action, the applicant relies on three pleas in law.

1.First plea in law, alleging infringement of Articles 1 and 2 of Regulation 1/58, Article 22 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (‘the Charter’) and Article 1d of the Staff Regulations, by restricting the system of communication between EPSO and the applicant, which extends to the application form.

2.Second plea in law, alleging infringement of Articles 1 and 6 of Regulation 1/58, Article 22 of the Charter, Articles 1d(1) and (6), 27 and 28(f) of the Staff Regulations and Article 1 of Annex III to the Staff Regulations 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.

3.Third plea in law, alleging discrimination on the ground of language prohibited by Article 1 of Regulation 1/58, Article 22 of the Charter, Articles 1d(1) and (6), 27 and 28(f) of the Staff Regulations and Article 1 of Annex III to the Staff Regulations, since the choice of English, French and German was arbitrary.

The applicant states, in that regard, that those grounds of challenge must be read in the light of the judgment of the Court of Justice of 27 November 2012 in Case C-566/10 P, Italy v Commission, and of the judgments of the General Court of 24 September 2015, in the Joined Cases Spain v Commission and Italy v Commission (T-191/13 and T-124/13), and 17 December 2015 (T-275/13, T-295/13 and T-510/13, Italy v Commission), which have become final, since they have not been appealed by the Commission, and the implementation of which is not reflected in the present notice.