Judgment_paragraph 16 · European Commission v Council of the European Union (C-63/12)

16In response to that request, the Commission submitted Communication COM(2011) 829 final of 24 November 2011, providing supplementary information to the report of 13 July 2011 (‘the supplementary information’), which is based on, inter alia, the European economic forecasts published by the Commission’s Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs on 10 November 2011. In that supplementary information, the Commission stated that those forecasts ‘show worsening trends for 2011 as compared to the Forecast released in spring both as regards economic and social indicators and that the European economy is currently experiencing a turmoil.’ Nonetheless, the Commission considered that, taking into account a number of factors, the Union was not facing an extraordinary situation for the purposes of Article 10 of Annex XI to the Staff Regulations such as to justify the adoption of measures going beyond the loss of purchasing power brought about by the ‘normal’ method laid down in Article 3 of Annex XI. Consequently, the Commission stated that it was not in a position to trigger the exception clause without being in breach of Article 10.