Contents
In Case 15/65WERNER KLAER, an Unclassified Adviser to the High Authority, residing at Luxembourg, assisted by Alex Bonn, Advocate of the Cour Supérieure de Justice of the Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg, with an address for service in Luxembourg at the Chambers of bis said counsel, 22 rue de la Côte-d'Eich,vHIGH AUTHORITY OF THE EUROPEAN COAL AND STEEL COMMUNITY, represented by its Legal Adviser, Guy Sautter, acting as Agent, with an address for service in Luxembourg at its offices, 2 place de Metz,THE COURT (First Chamber)composed of: L. Delvaux (Rapporteur), President of Chamber, A. Trabucchi and R. Lecourt, Judges,Advocate-General: J. GandRegistrar: A.Van Houttegives the following
Judgment
Issues of fact and of law
I —Facts
The facts may be summarized as follows:Mr Werner Klaer, a German national born on 7 January 1906, was in 1952 an official in the administration of the German National Railways, with the grade of Ministerialrat.On 21 October 1952 he entered the service of the High Authority as Director of the Transport Division. On the entry into force of the initial Staff Regulations of the ECSC he was established in Grade Al, Step 5, with effect from 1 July 1956.as a result or the reorganization or the departments of the High Authority carried out in 1960, the Transport Division became a Directorate responsible to the Directorate-General for Economy and Energy. As a result, by a decision of 18 January 1960, Mr Klaer was first appointed Adviser (Grade 1) with effect from 1 February 1960 and on 1 March 1963 an Unclassified Adviser with effect from 1 January 1962. A decision of 12 and 13 March 1963 defined Mr Klaer's duties in the form of a threefold authority:— authority to act as Adviser at the Directorate-General for Economy and Energy, to coordinate questions of transport with the other departments of the High Authority;— authority to undertake certain studies concerning ECSC transport;— authority to represent the High Authority at various organizations outside the present framework of the Common Market (subject to the authority of the Directorate for External Relations).On 18 December 1964, the president of the High Authority notified to Mr Klaer a decision of the High Authority of 2 December 1964, which is the subject of the present application.This decision is drafted in the following terms:‘Article 1:Mr Werner Klaer, Unclassified Adviser, responsible for questions concerning transport (post No 10 in the detailed list of posts of Unclassified Advisers) shall be attached, with immediate effect, to the Directorate-General for Economy and Energy (post No 3 in the detailed list of posts of that Directorate-General).Article 2:Apart from the duties resulting tram the authority conferred on him on 12 March 1963, in the performance of which he is directly responsible to the High Authority, Mr Klaer shall in future perform the duties of Assistant to the Director-General for Economy and Energy in conjunction with Mr Cros.Article 3:The powers and duties of Mr Klaer are set out in the Schedule to this decision.ScheduleI — Duties of Mr Klaer in his capacity as Adviser to the High Authority on questions of transportThe duties notified to Mr Klaer on 6 May 1963 have not been amended.II — Duties of Mr Klaer, Special Adviser, in his capacity as Assistant to the Director-General for Economy and EnergyIn conjunction with Mr Cros, Mr Klaer shall perform the following duties:— He shall represent the Director-General for Economy and Energy both within and outside the Directorate-General and preside at internal meetings when the Director-General is prevented from so doing;— At external meetings he shall express the point of view of the Directorate-General in the absence of the Director-General;— He shall work with the Director-General in coordinating the activity of the various Directorates within the Directorate-General and act with him to ensure coordination with the other Directorates-General to the High Authority;— He shall share with the Director-General in the distribution of the current tasks between the Directorates and follow up their performance and, in specific cases, receive complete delegation of powers from the Director-General.In the absence of the Director-General Mr Klaer shall deputize for him.’On 15 January 1965, the applicant lodged a complaint through official channels against this decision.On 15 March 1965, in the absence of any reply on the part of the defendant, he made the present application in order to avoid losing his right of action.
II —Conclusions of the parties
III —Submissions and arguments of the parties
The submissions and arguments of the parties may foe summarized as follows:
A —Admissibility
The defendant claims that the application is inadmissible in that it is directed against an act which does not adversely affect the applicant.
B —The substance of the case
In order to contest the legality of the decision in question, the applicant makes the following four submissions:— infringement of an essential procedural requirement and in particular, an absence of reasons for the decision;— infringement of the provisions of the Staff Regulations of Officials concerning posts;— ultra vires acts;— irregularity of the procedure employed in drawing up the decision in question.
IV —Procedure
The statements of the parties were lodged within the prescribed time-limits and the procedure followed the normal course.By order of 30 September 1965 the President of the Court appointed Mr J. Gand to act as Advocate-General in place of Mr K. Roemer.Upon hearing the report of the Judge-Rapporteur and the opinion of the Advocate-General, the Court (First Chamber) decided on 5 October 1965 to open the oral procedure without holding any preparatory inquiry, but nevertheless requested the defendant to lodge certified true copies of the decisions of the High Authority of 22 March 1961, 24 September, 13 November and 2 December 1964 and of the decision of the Administrative Committee of 19 November 1964.The defendant lodged these documents on 14 October 1965.The parties presented their oral submissions at the hearing on 20 October 1965.At this hearing me Court asked me parties to state clearly whether the applicant had been aware of the minutes of the meetings of the High Authority on 24 September and 2 December 1964 which are referred to in the preamble to the decision in question.Pursuant to Article 29 (2) (b) of the Rules of Procedure, the Court authorized the parties to use the French language in their pleadings.Mr Advocate-General Gand delivered his opinion at the hearing on 17 November 1965.
Grounds of judgment
A —Admissibility
The defendant maintains that the application is inadmissible in that it is directed against an act which does not adversely affect the applicant. The contested decision led to no injury to the material interests of the applicant and no reduction in his rank as compared with the Director-General with whom he was required to cooperate. The new definition of his duties made by the administrative authority did not adversely affect his status and thus, it is not admissible for the applicant to contest the decision of the High Authority.The applicant rightly replies that in this case the admissibility of the application is closely connected to the substance of the case and that it is only after the consideration of the substance by comparing the content of the contested decision with those provisions of the Staff Regulations which have allegedly been infringed that it will be possible to state whether or not this decision constitutes an act adversely affecting the applicant.
B —The substance of the case
The applicant maintains that, by assigning to him duties which are not of the level of those usually assigned to an Unclassified Adviser in Grade Al, the decision in question infringed the Staff Regulations of Officials, in particular Articles 5 and 7The definitions of duties and powers, adopted by the High Authority on 18 December 1962 in accordance with Article 5 (4) of the Staff Regulations, defines an Unclassified Adviser as a ‘very highly-qualified officials with the task of advising the Institution or engaged in top-level studies’.Thus, an Unclassified Adviser cannot be required to advise a Directorate-General.Furthermore, under Article 7 of the Staff Regulations the defendant is bound to assign each official to a post in his category which corresponds to his grade.The abovementioned provisions show that an official is entitled not only to remain in the same grade and receive the corresponding remuneration, but also to be entrusted with duties and powers which are as a whole in accordance with the post corresponding to the grade which he holds in the administration.The first question is, therefore, whether the effect of the decision appointing the applicant to a post as Assistant to the Director-General for Economy and Energy, who also held Grade Al, was not to place him in a lower administrative position than another official in the same grade. It is in the very nature of the duties of an assistant to the Director-General that the person to whom such duties are assigned is in a subordinate position as compared with the Director-General himself.The position of the Director-General in relation to the applicant is confirmed by the definitions of duties and powers annexed to the decision in question.In particular the statement that in the absence of the Director-General at external meetings Mr Klaer shall express the point of view of the Directorate-General means that this point of view will not be prepared on the basis of the opinion of the applicant but rather on that of the Director-General.Secondly, it is clear from the definitions of duties and powers adopted by the High Authority on 18 December 1962 that an official perforating duties in Grade Al can only be responsible to the High Authority itself or to its working parties.Moreover the definitions of the duties in career bracket A2 show the Director to be under the direct authority of the Director-General and, in certain cases, of the Institution and that an Unclassified Adviser is required to advise the Institution or a Directorate-General.This same concept appears throughout the definitions of duties and places the holder of a post under the authority of the official whose bracket is immediately superior to his own.However, the effect of this system cannot be—as in this case—to subordinate one official in Grade Al to the authority of another official in the same grade, at least without having obtained the agreement of the former.It is true that under the terms of Article 2 of the decision in question the applicant remains responsible for the duties deriving from the authority of 12 March 1963, in the performance of which he is directly responsible to the High Authority.Although these duties involve a working relationship with the Directorate-General for Economy and Energy, they do not incorporate the applicant into this Directorate-General or subordinate him to its Director-General.It matters little in this case that, as regards the duties which the applicant continues to perform by virtue of the authority of 1963, he is only responsible to the Institution.In fact, the new duties assigned to him by the decision in question cannot merely be an extention of his earlier duties in Grade Al, as they are quite distinct and must, as a result of their importance, be assessed separately.The subordination of the applicant to another official represents a substantial diminution of his earlier status.Before the decision in question was made the applicant was only responsible to the High Authority, while as a result of this decision he has become subordinate to an official in his own grade.Finally, the duties of assistant to the Director-General for Economy and Energy were at the same time entrusted to Mr Cros, an official in Grade A2.This joint appointment is confirmation that it was intended to diminish the authority of the applicant by assigning to him duties corresponding to Grade A2, in spite of a certain importance accorded to him in relation to his colleague in Grade A2, in that the applicant is alone empowered to deputize for the Director-General in his absence.The above considerations show that the decision in question is not merely an internal measure for the organization of the department, which falls within the sphere of the High Authority's discretionary power, but that it adversely affects the rights held by the applicant under the Staff Regulations by requiring him to perform duties which do not correspond to his post and grade.The application is therefore admissible and well founded.
C —Costs
The applicant has been successful in his application.Under the terms of Article 69 (2) of the Rules of Procedure the defendant must therefore be ordered to pay the costs.
Operative part
Source: EUR-Lex, © European Union, 1998-2026. Reuse authorised under Decision 2011/833/EU.