Regulating the status of officials of the regional intergovernmental organisations in Southeast Europe: A quest for an international civil service

Abstract

The article explores how the constituent instruments and secondary rules of the selected three regional intergovernmental organisations in Southeast Europe (Energy Community, Transport Community, Regional School of Public Administration) have incorporated some key legal concepts related to the status of international officials - professional independence of international officials and exclusivity of international service; recruitment standards; and the legal remedies for protecting the rights of international officials. The article, at the first place, defines the notion of international civil service, and elaborates, based on the legal texts of a number of international organisations and theoretical writings, the international practice in regulating the above specified concepts. The article than analyses and assesses how these concepts have been addressed in the relevant legal documents of the selected organisations. Finally, the article concludes that the explored legal texts provide for the guarantees of professional independence of the officials and contain the elaborated rules on recruitment aiming at selecting qualified staff and ensuring the geographical equilibrium within the secretariats. However, certain shortages have been identified and explained in relation to the existence of adequate legal remedies for protecting staff, particularly through the judicial proceedings.

Keywords

• regional organisations
• international civil service
• administrative international law
• international administrative tribunals
• staff regulations