Case T‑123/23

VA

v

European Commission

 Judgment of the General Court (Fifth Chamber, Extended Composition) of 5 June 2024

(Civil service – Officials – Remuneration – Family allowances – Dependent child allowance – Education allowance – Decisions to terminate certain allowances – Conditions for granting – Concept of ‘end of education’ – Equal treatment – Principle of sound administration – Recovery of undue payment – First paragraph of Article 85 of the Staff Regulations – Responsibility)

1.      Officials – Remuneration – Family allowances – Education allowance – Conditions for granting – Cumulative nature

(Staff Regulations of Officials, Art. 67 and Annex VII, Arts 2 and 3)

(see paragraphs 32-34)

2.      Officials – Remuneration – Family allowances – Dependent child allowance – Conditions for granting – Continuing educational training – Concept – Date of end of education – Final results made available by the educational establishment

(Staff Regulations of Officials, Art. 67 and Annex VII, Art. 2(3)(b))

(see paragraphs 36, 38-42)

3.      Officials – Remuneration – Family allowances – Education allowance – Conditions for granting – Regular full-time attendance – Date of end of education – Final results made available by the educational establishment

(Staff Regulations of Officials, Art. 67 and Annex VII, Art. 3(1))

(see paragraphs 53-55)

4.      Officials – Acts of the administration – Withdrawal – Unlawful acts – Resumption of decision procedure from the stage affected by unlawful act – Whether permissible

(see paragraphs 71, 94)

Résumé

Hearing an action brought by an official of the Council of the European Union, the General Court annuls in part the Commission’s decisions, in so far as they remove that official’s entitlement to receive dependent child allowance, education allowance and the tax abatement relating to the dependent child allowance, during the period between the last academic examination of his child and the date when the final results are made available by the educational establishment. In that context, the General Court rules on the novel question of the date from which an official is no longer eligible for those financial entitlements, since his child no longer receives educational or vocational training, within the meaning of Article 2(3) of Annex VII to the Staff Regulations of Officials of the European Union (‘the Staff Regulations’), and no longer attends an educational establishment on a regular full-time basis, within the meaning of Article 3(1) of that annex.

In the present case, the applicant’s daughter attended university studies at a Belgian university. In particular, she passed her last examination in her course of study on 18 June 2021, learned that she had passed her examinations on 2 July 2021 and received a certificate of successful completion on 27 August 2021. The academic year ended on 13 September 2021.

Until September 2021, the applicant received, for his daughter, dependent child allowance and the education allowance provided for in Articles 2 and 3 of Annex VII to the Staff Regulations and received the tax abatement linked to the dependent child allowance. However, since his daughter had passed her examinations in June 2021 at the first examination sitting, the Commission decided that the applicant was no longer entitled to receive the financial entitlements at issue from July 2021 and therefore recovered those pecuniary entitlements for the months of July, August and September 2021.

Findings of the Court

To begin with, the General Court notes that, under Articles 2 and 3 of Annex VII to the Staff Regulations, the education allowance may be granted only if the conditions for obtaining the dependent child allowance have first been met. It follows that the condition of regular full-time attendance at an educational establishment must be assessed at a second stage, after it has been established that the child in respect of whom the education allowance is claimed is dependent on the official.

Where a child is studying at university, entitlement to the dependent child allowance is subject to the fulfilment of three conditions, namely that the official actually maintains his child, that the child is between 18 and 26 years of age and that the child is receiving educational or vocational training.

In that regard, the Court states that a ‘training’ consists of several stages, such as participation in the courses provided for in the programme of studies and in examinations relating to those courses, the assessment of those examinations and, at the end of the last of those examinations, the provision, by the educational establishment providing the training in question, of the final results certifying that the course has been successfully completed. Those stages are indissociable from each other, since participation in the examinations makes it possible to assess the student’s acquisition of the skills and knowledge imparted in connection with the courses provided.

Since the student can only be informed that he or she has successfully completed his or her training after he or she has completed all the examinations and once the results of those examinations have been made available by the educational establishment, it is from the moment when the final results are available that the student must be regarded as no longer receiving training within the meaning of Article 2(3)(b) of Annex VII to the Staff Regulations.

Thus, a child aged between 18 and 26 who receives educational or vocational training remains the responsibility of the official not until that child sits his or her last examination, but until the final results are made available by the educational establishment.

In that context, it is therefore the official’s responsibility to inform the administration of the end of his or her child’s education by informing it without delay of the date on which the final results were made available by the educational establishment, so that the administration can immediately stop payment of that allowance.

As regards the condition of attendance laid down in Article 3(1) of Annex VII to the Staff Regulations for the grant of the education allowance, the General Court applies its considerations concerning the dependent child allowance to the analysis of that condition.

It follows that it is from the moment when the final results are made available by the educational establishment that the official’s child must be regarded as no longer in regular full-time attendance at an educational establishment within the meaning of Article 3(1) of Annex VII to the Staff Regulations.