The Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ) has today ruled that the EU Council was entitled to reject the Commission’s proposal to increase the salaries of European officials by1.7% in 2011.
The Staff Regulations of Officials of the EU provided, until 2012, that the Council was to decide, on a proposal from the Commission, before the end of each year, on the adjustment of salaries and pensions of EU officials by applying the ‘adjustment method’. This method included calculations based on changes in the cost of living in Brussels and in the purchasing power of salaries of national civil servants in central government in eight Member States.
However, the Staff Regulations also included an exception, according to which in the event of a serious and sudden deterioration in the economic and social situation within the EU, the European Parliament and the Council are to decide together on the salaries without relying on the adjustment method. In this case, the Commission was to provide objective data to prove the existence of an economic crisis but it was not specified which institutions would be in charge of examining these data.
In 2011, the Commission and the Council disagreed as to whether there was a sudden deterioration in the economic and social situation in the EU that should affect salaries and pensions.
The ECJ has today dismissed the Commission’s action and ruled that “given that, for 2011,the Council had, on the basis of the data provided by the Commission, determined the existence of a serious and sudden deterioration, it was not obliged to adopt the Commission’s proposal presented on the basis of the “adjustment method” for that year.”
