Opinion of Mr Advocate-General Roemer

Mr President,

Members of the Court,

On 24 March 1971 the Director-General for Administration of the European Parliament gave notice of an internal competition on the basis of qualifications with a view to filling a vacant post of clerical officer in career bracket C3-C2 at the Directorate-General for Administration. The principal duty of the official to be appointed to this post was to consist in managing the stock of typewriters and calculating machines at the European Parliament. The applicant in this case, a chauffeur at that time in Grade D 2, who had entered the service of the Parliament on 1 December 1958, took part in this competition together with several other officials. Having examined the applications and the personal files of the candidates, the selection board, in a report dated 5 July 1971, awarded the applicant 32 points and placed him at the head of the list of suitable candidates. In second place, with 30 points, was Mr Lesire, who was also at that time a chauffeur in Grade D 2. Before filling the vacant post which was the subject of this competition on the basis of the above report, the appointing authority (in this case, the Secretary-General of the Parliament) sought the opinion of the relevant Director-General, namely the Director-General for Administration. In a memorandum of 13 July 1971 the latter indicated that the applicant's conduct had several times been criticized in writing in previous years and that, more recently still, he had been reprimanded for his poor conduct (as appears from a special memorandum from the Head of the Conferences Division of the European Parliament of 6 July 1971, attached to the opinion). In addition, at the last session, a Member of Parliament had expressed his displeasure with the applicant. On the other hand, there was only praise for the candidate placed second, who was already performing the duties relating to the post which was the subject of the notice of competition. Furthermore, in view of the fact that there was only a small difference between the points obtained by these candidates and that the applicant had obtained a higher number of points only by reason of his seniority and that the applicant had obtained a higher number of points only by reason of his seniority and his participation in previous competitions (which had nothing to do with the post to be filled), whereas the second candidate had shown himself to be very much better in the test of suitability, the Director-General for Administration proposed that the latter be appointed to the vacant post.

The appointing authority followed this proposal. By decision of the Secreatry General of 21 July 1971 the candidate placed second was promoted to Grade C3 with effect from 1 August 1971 and transferred to the post which was the sub-appointment was communicated to the staff of the Parliament by posting within the institution on 29 July 1971.

The applicant, who was unhappy with the outcome of this competition, appealed to the Court on 25 October 1971 and now asks you to annul the decision in question for various reasons.

I shall now examine and give an opinion on this application.

1 Translated from the French version.