Language of document : ECLI:EU:F:2007:166

ORDER OF THE CIVIL SERVICE TRIBUNAL (First Chamber)

26 September 2007

Case F-129/06

Rocío Salvador Roldán

v

Commission of the European Communities

(Civil service – Officials – Remuneration – Expatriation allowance – Conditions laid down by Article 4(1)(a) of Annex VII to the Staff Regulations – Habitual residence – Action manifestly devoid of any legal basis)

Application: brought under Articles 236 EC and 152 EA, in which Mrs Salvador Roldán seeks, first, annulment of the decision of the appointing authority of the Commission of 18 August 2006, dismissing her complaint brought on 15 May 2006 against the Commission’s decision of 6 April 2006 not to pay her the expatriation allowance and, second, an order that the Commission pay her amounts corresponding to that allowance, with effect from 1 April 2006, plus interest.

Held: The action is dismissed as manifestly unfounded. The parties are ordered to bear their own costs.

Summary

Officials – Remuneration – Expatriation allowance – Conditions for granting

(Staff Regulations, Annex VII, Art. 4(1)(a)))

The habitual residence to which Article 4(1)(a) of Annex VII to the Staff Regulations refers for the purpose of the grant of the expatriation allowance corresponds to the place in which the official concerned has established, with the intention that it should be of a lasting character, the permanent or habitual centre of his interests, it being understood that, for the purposes of determining habitual residence, all the factual circumstances which constitute such residence and, in particular, the actual residence of the official concerned must be taken into account.

The place where a person carries on their occupation, apart from its relevance as an independent criterion for the application of Article 4(1)(a) of Annex VII to the Staff Regulations, is an important indicator for determining habitual residence.

The fact that an official might have the intention of looking for a job other than in his country of residence is not such as to call into question the determination of his habitual residence, since it is not disputed that, throughout the reference period, that official maintained the centre of his interests at the place of his subsequent employment, where he had his home and where, for most of the period, he carried on his occupation. Accordingly, that requirement of an intention to confer stability on the centre of his interests is not to be interpreted as meaning that the official concerned must have excluded the possibility of returning to his country of origin or leaving for another Member State of the European Union.

An official’s other ties with his country of origin, such as ownership of a car, medical consultations, property owned by his parents in that country, the fact of having renewed his official identity papers there, the exercise of his rights as a citizen or the fact of having his tax domicile, financial interests and assets there, including a bank account, and the visits which he makes to it are only those normal ties which people retain with the country in which their parents live and where they have lived for a long time, but are insufficient to establish that they are habitually resident in that country.

(see paras 48, 51, 56, 59)

See:

T-18/91 Costacurta Gelabert v Commission [1992] ECR II‑1655, para. 42; T‑90/92 Magdalena Fernández v Commission [1993] ECR II‑971, para. 30; T‑18/98 Reichert v Parliament [2000] ECR‑SC I‑A‑73 and II‑309, para. 25; T‑60/00 Liaskou v Council [2001] ECR-SC I‑A‑107 and II‑489, paras 53 and 64; T‑283/03 Recalde Langarica v Commission [2005] ECR-SC I‑A‑235 and II‑1075, para. 114; T-83/03 Salazar Brier v Commission [2005] ECR-SC I‑A‑311 and II‑1407, paras 56 and 71, under appeal to the Court of Justice, C‑9/06 P; T-259/04 Koistinen v Commission [2006] ECR-SC I-A-2-177 and II-A-2-879, para. 34; T‑324/04 F v Commission [2007] ECR-SC I-A-2-0000 and II-A-2-0000, para. 87