In a ruling handed down on Wednesday 23 July (Case T-613/23), the General Court of the European Union annulled the European Commission’s decision of January 2023 appointing the Principal Legal Adviser of the Trade Policy and WTO Team within the EU institution’s Legal Service.
An unsuccessful candidate, James Flett is contesting the nomination of another candidate by the Commission.
In its ruling, the General Court found in his favour on only one of the four grounds put forward. The General Court considers that the decision by the President of the European Commission to delegate her powers to her Head of Cabinet to interview the successful candidate was not justified by imperative service reasons and therefore infringes the principle of legal certainty. The absence of a written document makes it impossible to assess the existence of such reasons and, at the hearing, the Commission did not specify the imperative service reasons that had prevented the President of the Commission from interviewing the successful candidate.
However, in the General Court’s view, the appointment procedure provides for the President of the Commission to have her own prerogative in the choice of senior officials serving under her authority, in order to establish with them a working relationship based on trust and taking into account the high level of responsibility they are required to exercise.
For this reason, the General Court annulled the Commission’s decision. However, it did not uphold Mr Flett’s claim for compensation of €100,000 in respect of the non-material damage he had allegedly suffered.
To see the General Court’s judgment: https://aeur.eu/f/hzg (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)