Legal Service

R&D has always made available to its members and future members free legal advice provided by our lawyers.

Dear colleagues,

Many of you support us in all the actions we undertake and  encourage us to continue in this direction.  We would like to express our deepest gratitude to you all.

In order to be able to respond concretely to individual cases that cannot be dealt with in a collective manner, please note that FREE legal advice is now available  to answer all your statutory questions and more.

Our specialist lawyer, Sébastien Orlandi from SOA Law Firm,  will be on duty EVERYDAY by phone or email.

SOA Law Firm has developed an expertise in:

• EU CIVIL SERVICE LAW AND EU INSTITUTIONS LAW
• EU contractual / extra-contractual liability
• AND MORE…

Cases / Court of justice – Curia

Should you wish to use this service – open to members and future members – and get an appointment, please do not hesitate to contact our secretariat (by e-mail: OSP-RD@ec.europa.eu).

All our services are completely free of charge for all our members and future members, as well as for their family members.

Please be assured that we will stay by your side all along, and support you in any action, information, decisions… you might want to (under) take.

Yours truly

The Executive Committee of R&D

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Our specialist Lawyer

SOA LAW FIRM

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In addition to this personal assistance, the R&D Legal Service participates in conferences on staff matters and defends the cases supported by R&D before the General Court and the Court of Justice of the European Union.

Since 2021, we have been able to deliver nearly 3,000 individual legal consultations:

Legal assistance and representation in the pre-litigation procedures (requests for assistance, complaints, meetings of the inter-service group) and litigation (appeal to the General Court of the European Union)

In 2020, in addition to the usual subjects, the consultations focused in particular on working conditions in the context of the ‘covid’ pandemic: teleworking, flexi-time, harassment, place of residence and the arrangements for remote tests (EPSO).

From 2021 the consultations focused in particular on the following subjects:

• appraisal and promotion: appeal to the appeal assessor in case of unsatisfactory reports, complaints and appeals to the Tribunal regarding the appraisal and / or the promotion;
• competitions and selection procedures: requests for reconsideration of the jury’s decisions (conditions of admission deemed unfilled, results of talent screener, etc.), recourse to the courts;
• appointment and recruitment: classification in grade or function group (recognition of diplomas, recognition of professional experience), incidents during the probationary period (accompaniment before the reporting committee);
• ethical and disciplinary: IDOC investigations, assistance to the appointing authority and the Disciplinary Board (unauthorized external activities, fraud, harassment, conflicts of interest, etc.);
• Psychological and sexual harassment;
• remuneration: examination of your entitlement to the various allowances (daily, installation, expatriation, foreign residence, etc.) and to family allowances (household allowances, school allowances, etc.), complaints and appeals if necessary;
• social security: questions relating to the methods for calculating the retirement / survivors’ pension, appeals against the decisions of transfer of pension rights, setting disability, recognition of the occupational origin of the illness / disability;
• External activities, freedom of expression.
• Absence control
• Invalidity/accident procedures
• temporary and contractual agents: specific problems for agents under contract (succession of contracts, non-renewal, dismissal, payment of the severance grant, etc.);
• delegations: special issues related to posting in a third country (eg. living allowance, travel time, annual leave, etc.).

Contentious proceedings supported by Renouveau & Démocratie

• On 8 September 2020, the Court annulled the judgment of the General Court of the European Union of 4 December 2018, Carreras Sequeros and Others v Commission (T-518/16, EU:T:2018:873), in which the provisions relating to annual leave had been declared by the General Court to be contrary to the Charter of Fundamental Rights (right to annual leave and equal treatment).
• On appeal, the Court of Justice confirmed the validity of the new provisions of the Staff Regulations in its judgment of 25 March 2021 in the case of Alvarez and Ardalic v Council – right to annual leave abolished for non-expatriates.
• The Grand Chamber of the Court of Justice delivered a judgment on 15 December 2022 in the Picard v Commission case in which the judgment of the Court of First Instance was set aside. According to the Court, the transitional measures for calculating pension rights apply in the event of the conclusion of a new contract or a change in the type of contract (AT/AC).
• Unfair dismissal: Sucic v Commission – dismissal of a close security guard, without establishment of the facts giving rise to the dismissal by the Commission – annulment by judgment of the Court of First Instance of 8 May 2024.
• leave and retirement in the interest of the service: Article 42c of the Staff Regulations, defence of a colleague illegally retired by the institution ex officio – execution of the decision suspended after interim review, substantive examination always in progress.

Organized conferences

• The Picard case: concerning the continuity of pension rights – Case C-366/21p-Judgement of the Court (Second Chamber)
• Pensions: comments on recent decisions of the Court of Justice on transfer of pension rights, application of the minimum subsistence rule, related pension issues in the event of successions / interruptions of contracts;
• Mediation: discussions around the mediation service, proposals to improve channels of pre-litigation claims involving Commission’s Ombudsman.