Luxembourg, 21/10/2003 (Agence Europe) - Marta Andreasen, former accountant and director of "Budgetary Implementation" of the Directorate General Budget of the European Commission, has taken her employer to the EU's Court of First Instance. The civil servant had been suspended from her duties for having criticised what she called the gaps and failures of the accounting system of the Commission. She is calling upon the European Court to force the Commission to pay her damages with interest for her resultant losses.
Marta Andreasen says that she was suspended without "just reasons" and in the absence of any serious wrongdoing to justify the "urgent need to exclude her from her workplace". She also criticises what she calls the Commission's violation of the principle of proportionality. She also accuses the Commission of having infringed rights of defence by putting her into a situation which allowed her neither to be heard nor to enforce her rights. It is worth noting that the civil servant was then appointed advisor to the Directorate General of Staff and Administration.