Eerste zaak voor nieuwe administratieve EU-rechtbank door Italiaan aangebracht (en) - Main contents

A brand new EU Civil Service Tribunal has held its first hearing in Luxembourg, with judges hoping to ease some of the workload coming from EU institution workers appealing to the courts to dissolve office spats with their employer.

Mr Falcione, an Italian-born principal administrator at the EU anti-fraud office (OLAF), on Tuesday (28 March) started procedures against his employer in a case questioning the commission's methods on classifying work experience.

Mr Falcione believes that his employer has not taken sufficient account of his professional experience, particularly the experience he gained before graduating from university.

"A person who has worked for thirty years before he or she goes to university, is in the commission's way of seeing things, someone who has not worked at all," Mr Falcione's defence lawyer said in his plea before the new court.

Tuesday's case is one of several questioning the EU institutions' complicated system of work classification and salary setting.

In 2005, over a third of the cases before the Court of First instance (CFI) - a branch of the European Court of Justice that deals with actions brought by companies or individuals - came from dissatisfied employees from within the EU's own work corridors.

The new court branch has seven judges and will hear and determine all disputes involving the European civil service, currently dealt with by the CFI.

With the increasing number of cases brought before the CFI in recent years, the Treaty of Nice, which entered into force on 1 February 2003, provided for the creation of `judicial panels' in certain specific areas.

In November 2004, EU leaders agreed to establish the European Union Civil Service Tribunal.

A court official said that with the increasing number of EU bodies and agencies as well as the wider scope of legislative authority for the court in Luxembourg, dividing up the tasks had become a necessity.

It is also hoped the new division of labour will speed up the proceedings.