Luxembourg, 03/10/2005 (Agence Europe) - The former accountant and director of budgetary execution for the European Commission, Marta Andreasen, who is now domiciled in Barcelona, has called on the European Court of First Instance to order the Commission, which sacked her, to pay her a million EUR in compensation for the damage she claims to have suffered. Marta Andreasen is also calling for monthly compensation of 12,300 EUR to be paid to her for the time from when she was sacked until the Court returns its verdict, to make amends for her financial damages. By default, Marta Andreasen is calling for all of her pay until the age of 65, still with a million EUR for the damages.
Marta Andreasen spoke out against what she felt to be gaps and shortcomings with the accounting system of the European Commission. The Commission retorted that there was no basis for her statements, and accused her of making unauthorised public statements and hiding information pertaining to her previous job (EUROPE 8806).
According to Marta Andreasen, the procedure which led to her sacking, on 13 October 2004, is null and void because the conditions of independence and impartiality were not fulfilled: -the European Commissioners behind the accusations levelled at her were part of the administrative authority competent for her dismissal; -the discipline panel was made up of civil servants belonging to the Commission, with one exception (its chairman, the former president of the Court of First Instance, José Luiz Cruz Vilaça).
The former accountant then stated that her dismissal would be a second sanction on the basis of the same facts. She also invoked exceeded time delays, dismissal without statement of reasons and a sanction which she felt was out of all proportion.
This action was anticipated (see EUROPE 8931) and considered by observers to be a logical next stage in the matter, as Marta Andreasen had already challenged her dismissal from her post as accountant and subsequent transfer to an adviser's position within the Directorate General for Personnel, before the Court of First Instance. What was not anticipated was that Marta Andreasen would then withdraw her previous actions; the Court struck them off. The former accountant and the Commission are involved only in the "dismissal" affair. It is worth noting that Marta Andreasen has changed her lawyer.