Report for the Hearing delivered in Case 246/84

I — Facts and written procedure

1. The applicant, a reviser in Grade LA 4 in the General Secretariat of the Council, entered the Council's employment on 1 November 1980 as a reviser in the Greek translation division then being set up. On 1 April 1982 Mr Constantinopoulos, a reviser in the same division, was appointed temporary head of division and occupied that post until April 1983. He continued de facto to do the work relating to that post until 1 December 1983. During the whole period the applicant was responsible for the internal coordination of the division and for standing in for Mr Constantinopoulos during his absences.

2. By an application of 12 October 1984, received at the Court Registry on 15 October 1984, the applicant brought the present action for the annulment of Decision No 11/83 of 13 December 1983 and for compensation for the injury caused by the aforesaid decision.

II — Conclusions of the parties

The applicant claims that the Court should:

1. As regards the procedure

2. As regards the substance

Declare the present action well founded and substantiated and in consequence

The Council contends that the Court should :

III — Submissions and arguments of the parties

1. The applicant alleges in the first place that there is an infringement of Article 27 of the Staff Regulations, according to which recruitment shall be directed to securing for the institution the services of officials of the highest standard of ability, efficiency and integrity. The infringement arises from the fact that the applicant has superior qualifications to those of the candidate selected and from the fact that he was first in the competition.

2. The Council denies any infringement of the Staff Regulations and misuse of powers.

IV — Fresh issue raised during the course of the proceedings

1. In a document which was received at the Court on 27 December 1985, at the end of the oral procedure, the applicant raised a fresh issue within the meaning of Article 42 (2) of the Rules of Procedure to the effect that the person appointed to the post in question did not satisfy the condition of 10 years' experience laid down in the Notice of Competition No LA/250.

V — Oral procedure

At the sitting on 21 October 1986 the Court (Third Chamber) heard evidence from Mr Christos Constantinopoulos, Head of the Greek Division of the Language Service of the Council, and from Mr Themistocles Banoussis, the director of Exantas Ltd Publishers, on the question of how long, and in what capacity, Mr Christos Constantinopoulos had worked for Exantas Ltd.

Mr Constantinopoulos stated in essence that between 1972 and 1980 — the year of his entry into the service of the Council — he lived partly in Berlin and partly in Greece. During that time he worked for the publishing firm of Exantas as a reader. His activities included proposing books — in Greek or other languages — for publication, translating certain publications or parts thereof, and revising and collating translations by other translators. Those activities amounted to fulltime employment. Although from 1972 to 1975 he also followed courses at the university (two or three seminars a week), he nevertheless devoted the greater part of his time to translation work. Mr Constantinopoulos further stated that he had received from Exantas a salary of about DR 15000 a month at the

beginning, rising to about DR 35000 to 40000 by the end, to which was added a given percentage on titles in which he had collaborated.

1 Language of the Case: Greek.