Complaints under Article 90(2)

Who may lodge a complaint?

Any person subject to:

• the Staff Regulations applicable to Permanent Staff Members (SR)
• the Conditions of Employment of Other Servants (CEOS): temporary staff members and contract staff members
• the Conditions of Employment of Teaching Staff (CETS): full-time and part-time contract holders
  
• the President’s Decision no. 10/2019 regarding Data Protection at the EUI: data subjects

The persons concerned are not only the serving staff listed above but also other categories such as:

• candidates in a competition
• EUI trainees
• probationers awaiting establishment
• former staff or those entitled under them in the event of death

What is the purpose of a complaint?

By lodging a complaint, you contest a decision by the appropriate authority which, in your view, affects your statutory rights and is prejudicial:

• the authority has either taken an explicit or implicit rejection decision
• or it has failed to take a measure required by the SR, CEOS and CETS

Thus, a complaint presupposes the prior existence of an administrative act taken by the appropriate authority.

This act may be challenged if it is:

• final, as preparatory acts may not be challenged
• personally and individually prejudicial (the person concerned must have a personal, legitimate, direct, substantive and current interest in having the decision cancelled or amended)

Any request for review or reconsideration of a decision is therefore to be regarded as a complaint for the purposes of compliance with the deadlines listed below.

It should also be noted that decisions taken by a selection board for a competition may be challenged directly before the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU).

Deadline and method of submission of the complaint

Deadline

A complaint must be lodged within three months. This period starts:

• on the date of publication of the act if it is a measure of a general nature
• on the day of notification of the decision to the person concerned, but in no case later than the date on which the latter received such notification, if the measure affects a specified person; if, however, an act affecting a specified person also adversely affects another person, the period shall start to run in respect of that other person on the date on which he receives notification thereof but in no case later than the date of publication
• on the date of expiry of the period prescribed for the reply where the complaint is against an implied decision rejecting a request

Complaints lodged out of time are inadmissible.

Acts which contain no points not already made in a previous decision are purely confirmatory and do not have the effect of providing the member of staff with further time.

Form and content of the complaint

A complaint is defined by its nature and content, not by its form.

The complaint, to be submitted together with the cover form (.doc), must state:

• the identity of the complainant
• its purpose and the grounds and arguments on which it is based
• the disputed act
• the place, date and signature

Any relevant document should be attached. In case of multiple annexes, please submit them in a single PDF document.

How to submit a complaint

One single copy of the request should be submitted to the President by e-mail, preferably in .pdf format, to the operational mailbox [email protected].

 It is not necessary to submit a paper version in parallel but if you do not wish to use e-mail, you can send your complaint to the office address:

President of the European University Institute

Badia Fiesolana, Via dei Roccettini 9

50014 San Domenico di Fiesole (FI), Italy

Treatment of the complaint

Date of registration

In the case of complaints submitted by e-mail, the date of registration will be the date on which it is sent or the first working day following that date if it is a holiday.

In the case of complaints submitted by post, the registration stamp of the EUI Mail and Protocol Office will be taken as proof of the date the request was submitted.

Opening of the file

Complaints are processed by the President’s office, so that the appointing authority may adopt a reply.

The President’s office sends the complainant an acknowledgement of receipt by an automatic reply message. 

At the same time, the President’s office will collect any information relevant to treating the matter from the departments which took or are affected by the decision being challenged.

In order to get sufficient information complaints will be submitted to all working units involved based on strict confidentiality and rules on data protection applicable.

Complaints about the Joint Sickness Insurance Scheme are also sent to the Sickness Insurance Management Committee for its opinion.

Decision and deadlines of the complaint

The President has a period of four months from submission of a complaint to reply to it. After that period, the lack of a reply is deemed to be an implied decision of rejection.

The reply to the complaint is sent directly to the complainant. 

Appeals under Article 2 of the Common Provisions

If the complaint is rejected, whether expressly or implicitly, you may submit a judicial appeal before the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU).

Your appeal to the CJEU must be lodged:

• by a lawyer of your choice
• within three months from the date of notification of the reply or the implied rejection

When an express decision rejecting a complaint is taken after an implied rejection but within the period of three months allowed for lodging an appeal (but no appeal has been lodged), it reopens the three-month period for making an appeal to the CJEU.

Under the terms of Article 134 of the Rules of Procedure of the CJEU, without prejudice to the other provisions of the Chapter "Costs", the unsuccessful party shall bear their own costs and shall be ordered to pay the costs incurred by the other party if they have been applied for in the other party’s pleadings. Under Article 135 of the Rules of Procedure, the CJEU may, if equity so requires, decide that an unsuccessful party is to bear their own costs, but is to pay only part of the costs incurred by the other party, or even that they are not to be ordered to pay any costs.

For further information on the procedure before the CJEU please consult the Curia website.