COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS: COURT OVERRULES APPOINTMENT OF SECRETARY-GENERAL.

A candidate for the post of CoR Secretary-General at the same time as Vincenzo Falcone, former Greek European Commission official Spyridon de Athanassios Pappas appealed to the EU's Court of First Instance in March 2001, claiming a series of irregularities in selection procedures for the post (Case T-73/01). These irregularities have been substantiated by the Court of First Instance in its ruling of September 18, recognised as being of a nature to distort Mr Pappas' candidacy or result in a different appreciation of candidates than would have resulted from a correct procedure.

Among the points raised, Mr Pappas notably became aware that an annex to his application form had not been included in the dossier submitted to the committee responsible for assessing candidates. This annex described more comprehensively than in his curriculum vitae the various stages of his professional career, notably aspects linked to regional policy. The CoR claimed the disappearance of the annex was due to a clerical error, adding that it was subsequently restored to the dossier. Mr Pappas challenged this contention and the issue was not settled by the Court. The ruling does nevertheless concludes that tardy inclusion of the text can but have been detrimental to Mr Pappas' candidacy. The Court has also concluded that various steps in the selection procedure were not followed correctly, a fact that may also have been detrimental to Mr Pappas. It notably highlights shortcomings in the appreciation of the candidate's linguistic skills, the absence of a second hearing of candidates when a first hearing by the selection committee failed to result in candidates being ranked according to merit, and the absence of motives behind a shortlist of candidates.

In order to further emphasise the lack of objectivity in the selection procedure, Mr Pappas highlighted the fact that Vincenzo Falcone took up the post of interim Secretary General several months before the recruitment procedure was launched. Mr Falcone, serving at the time as Director of Administration (grade A2), was appointed interim Secretary-General in June 1999. By virtue of this...