On 5 December 2025, the Administrative Tribunal registered appeal No. 776/2025 – I v. Secretary General of the Council of Europe.

The appellant is a job candidate who took part in external competition No. 966/2025 for the recruitment of Human Rights Lawyers (Greek Law). They seek the annulment of the Secretary General’s decision which rejected their administrative complaint and confirmed the decision of the Directorate of Human Resources (DHR) excluding them from the pre-selection list on the basis of the marks obtained in the written tests.

The appellant submits that the appeal is timely, as it was lodged within 60 days of the Secretary General’s decision. They further contend that their administrative complaint was also filed within the applicable 30-day period from the moment in which they became aware of the detailed reasons for the contested decision of the DHR, namely when they discovered the email from the DHR containing the marking explanation in their spam folder.

As to the merits of their appeal, the appellant alleges that the assessment of their written tests was affected by several manifest errors of fact and law and was moreover tainted by unreasonableness. They consider that the lack of information on the marking criteria constitutes a material deficiency in transparency. The appellant also challenges the decision to raise the minimum mark from 10/20 to 13/20, arguing that it lacked transparency and objective justification. They maintain that, had their tests been correctly marked, their mark would reasonably have met or exceeded the raised threshold, such that the Organisation cannot rely on the threshold increase to justify their exclusion.

The appellant contends that the various grounds raised amount to irregularities in the selection process, warranting annulment of the contested decisions. The appellant seeks furthermore the correction or independent re-marking of their written tests by external legal experts, and their placement on the pre-selection list should their corrected mark meet the qualifying threshold. They also request the disclosure and publication of the marking criteria applied in this competition, as well as those to be applied in future competitions.

The indication of the subject matter of the appeals is based on the information provided to the registry and it is not binding on the Tribunal.

This information is given to enable those who so wish to exercise their right to intervene under Article XI of the Statute of the Administrative Tribunal.