Court sides with Council over staff salaries

Commission ordered to make new proposal for 2011 salary and pension adjustments.

The European Court of Justice today (19 November) ruled that the Council of Ministers had the right to reject a 1.7% salary increase for European Union staff proposed by the European Commission in 2011.

The ECJ ordered the Commission to make a new proposal that takes into account the “serious and sudden deterioration in economic conditions” – the justification given by the Council in December 2011 when it rejected the proposed salary increase.

The ECJ’s judgment is at odds with a legal opinion delivered in September by Yves Bot, an advocate-general at the court. ECJ judgments tend to follow the legal opinions provided by the advocates-general.

Adjustments to the salaries and pensions of EU staff are made each year using a method set out in the staff regulations that is supposed to ensure that salaries are roughly in line with those of national civil servants. The application of that method is not discretionary.

But for the annual adjustment for 2011, the Council rejected the Commission’s proposal, arguing that there had been a sudden, significant deterioration in the economic situation in Europe, an assessment opposed by the Commission. Both sides challenged the other’s assessment before the ECJ. 

The ECJ today ruled that it was up to the Council, not the Commission, to determine whether the economic situation justified triggering the exception clause and blocking salary rises. It also ruled that once such a decision has been made, the Commission is obliged to make a new proposal.

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