Judgment_paragraph 67 · Criminal proceedings against AB and Others (C-3/20)

67First, under Article 11(a) of the Protocol on privileges and immunities, immunity from legal proceedings is limited to acts performed by officials and other servants of the European Union in their official capacity and therefore covers only a small proportion of the criminal acts which those officials and other servants may commit. It is apparent, in that regard, from the case-law that that concept covers only acts which, by their nature, represent a participation of the person claiming immunity in the performance of the tasks of the institution to which he or she belongs (judgment of 11 July 1968, Sayag and Zürich, 5/68, EU:C:1968:42, p. 403). In the light of that very definition, acts of fraud or, as in dispute in the main proceedings, corruption or money laundering fall necessarily outside the bounds of the duties of an official or other servant of the European Union, as well as of those of a governor of a central bank of a Member State sitting on an organ of the ECB, and cannot be considered acts carried out by those persons in their official capacity.