Decision of the European Ombudsman on complaints 95/2001/IP, 138/2001/IP, 139/2001/IP, 140/2001/IP and 141/2001/IP against the European Commission

Dear Professor N.,

On 22 December 2000, you lodged a complaint with the European Ombudsman, on behalf of Mrs A., Mrs M., Mr B., Mr R. and Mr R., against the European Commission. The complaint concerned the institution's personnel policy at the Joint Research Centre of ISPRA.

I forwarded your complaint to the President of the European Commission on 28 March 2001, with a request for comments by 30 June 2001. The European Commission sent its opinion on 23 May 2001, which I forwarded to you on 31 May 2001. In its opinion, the Commission made reference to the fact that you had lodged a case on this matter with the Court of First Instance of the European Communities.

In accordance with Article 195 of the Treaty establishing the European Community, the European Ombudsman may not conduct inquiries where the alleged facts are or have been the subject of legal proceedings.

In order to verify this information, my services have contacted you by phone on 6 June 2001. During the telephone conversation, you confirmed that a complaint was lodged before the Court of First Instance on the facts alleged in the complaint to the Ombudsman.

Article 2 (7) of the Statute of the Ombudsman provides that, when the Ombudsman has to terminate his consideration of a complaint because of legal proceedings, the outcome of any inquiries he has carried out up to that point shall be filed without further action. I have therefore decided to close the case.

The President of the European Commission will also be informed of this decision.

Yours sincerely,

 

Jacob SÖDERMAN