Temporary public employees: CJEU opens the door to claims against the State for Supreme Court errors

No supreme court is sovereign in the face of EU law. This is the central argument of the opinion piece published this week in elEconomista by our partner Francisco Javier Ramón, entitled “El Tribunal Supremo contra Europa: el precio lo pagan los interinos” (“The Supreme Court versus Europe: temporary public employees pay the price”).

His starting point is the long-running disagreement between the Court of Justice of the European Union, which has for years warned that Spain’s treatment of temporary civil servants (funcionarios interinos) infringes EU law, and the Administrative Chamber of the Spanish Supreme Court, which, in the author’s view, has upheld its case law in spite of those rulings.

Following the Obadal judgment in April, the CJEU has gone a step further with its judgment of 8 September: the State must be held liable for damage caused when a supreme court departs from EU law. The Court also sets out when such an error is sufficiently serious, including where the relevant request for a preliminary ruling is not made or where existing EU case law left no room for the solution adopted.

The practical consequence, explains the partner in the Public, Administrative and Regulatory practice, is clear: temporary public employees whose claims were dismissed on the basis of the Supreme Court’s case law may now bring a State liability claim.

You can read the full article here:

Opinion | elEconomista: El Tribunal Supremo contra Europa: El precio lo pagan los interinos (in Spanish)