Opinion of Mr Advocate General Mancini

Mr President,

Members of the Court,

1. The applicant in this case — Calvin E. Williams, an official at the Court of Auditors — needs no introduction. His name has become well known to the Court, through the cases which he has brought before it. The first application brought by him was decided by the Court on 6 October 1982 (in Case 9/81 Williams v Court of Auditors [1982] ECR 3301); on that occasion, the Court decided that the Court of Auditors should classify the applicant in the appropriate step, taking account of his experience and possibly of his qualifications in conformity with the Decision of February 1980 in order to remove [with effect from 12 May 1980, the date of the complaint] the difference in classification between him and officials from outside the Community to whom the classification criteria of the abovementioned decision have been applied.

2. By an application lodged on 18 May 1984, Mr Williams claimed that the Court should: (a) annul the decision of 10 November 1983 reclassifying him and the decision of 16 March 1984 rejecting his complaint; (b) declare that the Court of Auditors was bound to observe all the criteria laid down in the decision of 21 February 1980, and in particular Article 4 thereof.

3. Having accepted that the applicant's grading could no longer be contested, the Court stated in its judgment of 6 October 1982 that it was none the less necessary to examine whether Mr William's qualifications and experience might entitle him to claim a higher step in his grade (A 6), in the new circumstances created by the introduction of the General Decision. In other words, the only question at issue was whether Mr William's step should be rectified. That is what the Court ordered the Court of Auditors to do, to remove the difference... between him and officials from outside the Community.

4. On the basis of the foregoing considerations, I propose that the Court should dismiss the application brought on 18 May 1984 by Calvin E. Williams and order the parties to bear their own costs, pursuant to Article 70 of the Rules of Procedure.

1 Translated from the Italian.