The Administrative Tribunal of the Council of Europe (‘ATCE’) is a fully fledged international administrative court competent to deal with labour disputes arising between serving and former staff members of the Council of Europe (‘CoE’) and their employer.

As an international organisation, the CoE enjoys immunity from the jurisdiction of national courts.

The ATCE allows serving and former staff members to seek judicial remedy in case of their employer’s wrongdoings. The official languages of the ATCE are English and French.

Appeals Board

Upon the establishment of the CoE in 1949, a board with the function of arbitrating disputes between the CoE and its staff was created but no dispute was referred to it. In its composition it was closer to an administrative body than to a judicial body. It was replaced in 1965 by the Appeals Board, a true administrative court, in no way answerable to the Committee of Ministers of the CoE or to the Administration. The Board was established following the 139th and 140th Meetings of the Minister’s Deputies held from 1 to 6 Match 1965 and from 5 to 9 April 1965 during which the Deputies adopted the Statute of the Appeals Board and a new version of article 25.3 of the Staff Regulations in force at the time.

The Appeals Board underwent its first major change on 23 January 1981 when the Committee of Ministers adopted Resolution (81) 1 which amended the Staff Regulations and the Statute of the Appeals Board (Appendix XI to the Staff Regulations at the time). This resolution changed the way members of the Appeals Board were appointed, extended the range of available remedies, and gave the Appeals Board’s decisions binding force. The Staff Committee was also given the ability to bring matters before the Appeals Board.
 

Administrative Tribunal

Under Resolution (94) 11 of the Committee of Ministers of the CoE, the Appeals Board was renamed the Administrative Tribunal. The Administrative Tribunal has since undergone significant reforms. There notably was an important change in the method of appointment of the Tribunal’s President and Deputy President in pursuance of Resolution (99) 19. Up until 31 December 1999, the President of the Tribunal was appointed by the European Court of Human Rights (‘ECtHR’) from among its own members, whilst the two remaining judges were appointed by the Committee of Ministers. As of 1 January 2000, the President of the Tribunal and his or her Deputy are to be chosen from among those who are not the serving judges of the Court.

On 15 February 1994, the Agreement on the extension of the jurisdiction (in French only) of the Administrative Tribunal to the staff members of the Development Bank of the CoE was signed.

In its Resolution (2014) 4 of 11 June 2014, the Committee of Ministers of the CoE extended the jurisdiction of the Administrative Tribunal to cover disputes not only between bodies attached to the CoE and their staff but also between other international governmental organisations and their respective officials. The CoE has since signed agreements on the extension of the jurisdiction of the Administrative Tribunal with the following organisations: the Central Commission for the Navigation of the Rhine (on 16 December 2014), the Hague Conference on Private International Law (on 24 November 2017), and finally the Intergovernmental Organisation for International Carriage by Rail (on 8 December 2017). The Administrative Tribunal is therefore able to examine the disputes between these bodies and organisations and their staff members (see Bodies and organisations subject to the jurisdiction of the Tribunal).

The evolution of the CoE's regulatory framework, marked by the entry into force of the new Staff Regulations on 1 January 2023, made it necessary to adapt the rules applicable to the Administrative Tribunal. Accordingly, by Resolution (2022) 65 of 16 November 2022¹  the Committee of Ministers of the CoE adopted a new Statute of the Administrative Tribunal, which also entered into force on 1 January 2023. This reform prompted the Tribunal to adopt new Rules of Procedure². These were adopted on 26 January 2023 and became applicable to appeals included in the Tribunal’s list of cases as from 10 February 2023.

Among the key developments introduced by the new Statute of the Tribunal are the provisions relating to its composition. The Tribunal must now include at least one judge and one deputy judge of each gender. The conditions for appointing judges have also been revised, requiring all members of the Tribunal to have a high level of expertise in administrative law, international administrative law, civil service law or labour law, as well as proficiency in at least one of the official languages of the Organisation and the ability to understand the other.

To ensure the judges’ independence, their term of office, previously subject to indefinite renewal, may now be renewed only once. At the same time, the judges’ term of office has been extended from three to four years to balance this limitation. The new Statute of the Tribunal also provides for the recusal of a judge in the event of a conflict of interest.

The litigation procedure has likewise been modernised. The written stage has been streamlined: a second round of written submissions now takes place only if deemed necessary by the Chair. Friendly settlement, an already existing practice, is now expressly provided for by the Statute of the Tribunal, to encourage its use. The new text also empowers the Tribunal to consider requests for interpretation, revision and execution of judgments. In addition, in compliance with data protection requirements and in respect for the privacy of appellants and witnesses, judgments of the Tribunal are now anonymised prior to publication.

It should be noted that the reform of the staff dispute regulatory framework has led to the abolition of the Advisory Committee on Disputes, a consultative body that issued opinions on complaints brought by staff members, either at their request or on the initiative of the Secretary General.

Notes

1. The new Statute of the Tribunal replaces the Statute of the Tribunal which was set out in appendix XI of the Staff Regulations in force until 31 December 2022 (Statute of the Administrative Tribunal until 31 December 2022) - Administrative Tribunal). For a comparison between the provisions of the former and the new Statute of the Tribunal, see document DD(2022)376.

2. These rules replace the Rules of Procedure of 1982.