European civil service. The principles of the legal framework in force

AuthorMihaela Tofan
PositionFaculty of Economics and Business Administration, 'Alexandru Ioan Cuza' University, Iasi, Romania
Pages250-258
European civil service.
The principles of the legal framework in force
Associate professor PhD Mihaela TOFAN
1
Abstract
The concept European civil service is being used in two ways, dep ending on
specific context: In the broadest sense of the term, Eur opean civil service means the
persons working for a Eur opean public institution and in the n arrow sense of th e term, it
means on ly the European officials, who are not invested with public author ity. Eur opean
officials’ lega l framework is governed by pr inciples of law, guiding ideas for their overall
activity and mandatory rules for the inter pretation of any legal text adopted by an
institution or Europea n body. These principles ar e, on one hand, common with other
branch es of Community law in general (e.g. the principle of subsidia rity, the principle of
equality, non-discr imination) and, on the other ha nd, specific principles of Eur opean civil
service r egulation (e.g. public competition pr inciple and the principle of disper sion
territor ial). The paper demonstrates that the genera l principle of subsidia rity is strongly
applied a nd that there is a dispute between the regulation ba sed on the idea of legal status
and/or the contr actual status of civil ser vice. There are lega l restrictions and specific
liabilities for the personel working within EU institutions and the paper work makes some
improvements propositions.
Keywords: Eur opean civil service, Eur opean official, institutions of the European
Union, the principle of subsidiar ity.
JEL Classification: K23, K33
1. Introduction
The institutions of EU could not function without a precise personnel
structure. The features and the specific roles of these institutions demanded a body
of professionals, with strong educational background and particular expertise. As a
result, Europea n Civil Servant and Eur opean Civil Service are concepts that
recently entered into the custom vocabulary for each of us. A new area for
administrative law has been launched and developed together with the progress of
the member states (MS) cooperation.
2. The legal framework for civil service at EU level
Article 24 of the Treaty merging the executives of the Communities (1967)
imposed a regulation establishing a single, joint legal framework for the staff
activity. Unification was achieved by Regulation EEC, ECSC and C.E.E.A. no. 259
from February 29, 1968, several times amended. In EU law, the regulatory
framework for public office was influenced when the European Commission
1 Mihaela Tofan - Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, „Alexandru Ioan
Cuza”University, Iasi, Romania, mtofan@uaic.ro

To continue reading

Request your trial

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT