Judgment_paragraph 59 · HF v European Parliament (T-570/16)

59The very point of the administrative inquiry, however, is to confirm or negate the existence of psychological harassment within the meaning of Article 12a of the Staff Regulations. Accordingly, the AECE must not prejudge the outcome of the inquiry and precisely must not adopt a position — not even impliedly — on the reality of the alleged harassment before having received the results of the administrative inquiry. In other words, it is inherent in the fact that an administrative inquiry has been opened that the administration must not adopt a position prematurely, essentially on the basis of the unilateral description of the facts provided in the request for assistance, as it must, on the contrary, reserve its position until that inquiry, which must be undertaken as an adversarial procedure and with the participation of the alleged harasser (see, to that effect, judgment of 23 September 2015, Cerafogli v ECB, T‑114/13 P, EU:T:2015:678, paragraphs 35 to 41), promptly and in compliance with the ‘reasonable time’ principle, has been completed.