Strasbourg, 23 February 2005

Dear Mr V.,

On 17 August 2004, you made a complaint to the European Ombudsman against the European Commission concerning the implications of the new Staff Regulations for certain competitions and in particular the open competition in which you participated, i.e. CC/A/12/02.

Your complaint concerned both your personal situation and the general implications of the new Staff Regulations for the situation of other candidates in competitions published in 2002.

On 28 September 2004, I forwarded your complaint to the President of the Commission in the context of my joint inquiry into several complaints concerning the same matter. On 11 January 2005, I received the Commission's opinion, which was forwarded to you with an invitation to make observations.

By e-mail of 13 February 2005, you submitted your comments on the Commission's opinion, in which you state that you do not consider the Commission to have commented on your specific situation and that you therefore see no point in submitting any detailed observations. You also state that you have brought an action before the Court of First Instance regarding your personal situation. You thank the Ombudsman for the time spent on your case and you hope that he will be able to help those other candidates who are in a similar situation.

Article 195 of the Treaty establishing the European Community provides that:

"[T]he Ombudsman shall conduct inquiries for which he finds grounds, ...,except where the alleged facts are or have been the subject of legal proceedings."

Furthermore, Article 2 (7) of the Statute of the European Ombudsman stipulates that:

"When the Ombudsman, because of legal proceedings in progress or concluded concerning facts which have been put forward, has to declare a complaint inadmissible or terminate consideration of it, the outcome of any inquiries he has carried out up to that point shall be filed without further action."

In view of the information that you have brought proceedings before the Court of First Instance, I have decided, in accordance with Article 2.7 of the Statute of the European Ombudsman, to terminate the consideration of your complaint and to file the outcome of the inquiries carried out so far without further action.

I would like to point out, however, that your concerns about the general implications of the new Staff Regulations are covered by my on-going joint inquiry into other complaints regarding the matter.

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

Yours sincerely,

 

P. Nikiforos DIAMANDOUROS