The European Commission takes the Council to the Court of Justice for failing to adopt the Council Regulation on the annual adjustment to the remuneration and pensions of EU staff as anticipated in the Staff Regulations. The main problem is the adjustment on salaries and pensions of EU officials. Both follow an increase or decrease regarding the national civil servants salaries and pensions.

The Commission decided to take the Council to the Court. According to the Commission, the Council failed to adopt the Council Regulation on the annual adjustment to the remuneration and pensions of EU staff as anticipated in the Staff Regulations. Under the Staff Regulations, salaries and pensions of EU officials are adjusted according to political decisions taken by Member States regarding the salaries of their own, national civil servants. When salaries of national officials increase or decrease, the same change is applied to EU staff.

There were small salary decreases in Italy, Spain and Luxembourg last year. On average, this meant that national officials lost 1.8% of their purchasing power in real terms. Exactly the same loss is proposed for EU officials, wherever they are based. The Commission therefore proposed to the Council that the same loss be applied to EU officials. The Commission proposal calls also for a -1.8% cut in real terms which, for staff in Brussels where inflation is 3.6%, translates into a nominal adjustment of 1.7%. As the European Court of Justice has already confirmed several times, under the Staff Regulations the Council has no margin of discretion, but has to adopt the adjustment value calculated by the Commission.

In July 2011, the Commission proposed to take into account the currently need for austerity by proposing staff cuts in all EU institutions of 5% as well as major changes to the Staff Regulations, such as increasing weekly working time from 37.5 to 40 hours without compensation, postponing the retirement age to 65 (or 67 under certain circumstances), and reshaping career structures for secretaries and assistants. All these measures will result in over €1 billion of savings over the next seven years and €1 billion per year in the long run if adopted. Despite the above considerations, the Council took a formal decision not to adopt the Commission Proposal. The Commission considers that this decision breaches the Staff Regulations and is therefore obliged, as guardian of the Treaties, to challenge it before the Court of Justice.