Case T‑273/17

Alessandro Quadri di Cardano

v

European Commission

(Civil service — Members of the contract staff — Expatriation allowance — Article 4(1)(b) of Annex VII to the Staff Regulations — Ten-year reference period — Nationality of the State of employment — Residence in the State of employment — Duties in an international organisation — Temporary employment contract)

Summary — Judgment of the General Court (Second Chamber), 13 July 2018

1.      Officials — Remuneration — Expatriation allowance — Conditions for granting — Habitual residence outside the Member State of employment during the reference period — Calculation of the period — Periods spent in the service of a State or international organisation to be disregarded — Lawfulness — Conditions — Service outside the State of employment

(Staff Regulations of Officials, Annex VII, Art. 4(1)(b))

2.      Officials — Remuneration — Expatriation allowance — Conditions for granting — Performance of duties in the service of a State or an international organisation — Meaning — Requirement of a direct legal relationship between the person concerned and the State or organisation — Performance of duties for an institution but as an employee of a temporary employment agency — Not included

(Staff Regulations of Officials, Annex VII, Art. 4(1)(b))

3.      Officials — Remuneration — Expatriation allowance — Conditions for granting — Based on objective factors — Account taken of reasons which led the person concerned to reside habitually in the country of which he is or was a national — None

(Staff Regulations of Officials, Annex VII, Art. 4(1)(b))

4.      Actions brought by officials — Pleas in law — Misuse of powers — Concept — Burden and administration of proof

5.      Officials — Principles — Protection of legitimate expectations — Conditions — Precise assurances given by the authorities

6.      Officials — Remuneration — Expatriation allowance — Conditions for granting — Various non-successive contracts concluded between the member of staff and the institutions — Determination of entitlement to the expatriation allowance upon each entry into service — Account taken of previous decisions awarding the expatriation allowance — Precluded — Infringement of acquired rights — None

(Staff Regulations of Officials, Annex VII, Art. 4(1)(b))

1.      For the purposes of calculating the ten-year reference period provided for in Article 4(1)(b) of Annex VII to the Staff Regulations, the only periods that can justifiably be disregarded are those during which the individual concerned has performed duties in the service of a State or of an international organisation situated ‘outside’ the State of employment. Consequently, it is unnecessary to disregard the periods during which the applicant performed duties in the service of an international organisation situated in the State of employment of which he is a national or to extend the reference period by an equivalent amount.

(see para. 62)

2.      The period of temporary work, on the basis of employment contracts between the applicant and a private agency, cannot be regarded as amounting to the performance of duties ‘in the service of an international organisation’ within the meaning of Article 4(1)(b) of Annex VII to the Staff Regulations. The intervention of an agency with which the applicant signed temporary employment contracts prevents a finding of a direct legal relationship between the applicant and the institution during the period of temporary work.

(see paras 70, 71)

3.      The actual reasons which caused a member of staff to remain in the country of employment of which he is a national must not be taken into account for the purposes of the grant of the expatriation allowance. An examination of the substance of the various reasons which led the person concerned to settle in the country of which he is a national would necessarily be based on assessments of a subjective nature, which is not consistent with either the wording or the purpose of Article 4(1)(b) of Annex VII to the Staff Regulations.

(see para. 90)

4.      See the text of the decision.

(see paras 100-103)

5.      See the text of the decision.

(see paras 109, 110)

6.      In the absence of continuity of the various contracts between a member of staff and the EU institutions and bodies, the financial entitlements of the person concerned, including the expatriation allowance, must be determined upon each entry into service. Consequently, the reference period and the facts relevant to the examination of the conditions under Article 4(1)(b) of Annex VII to the Staff Regulations are different for each contract. In those circumstances, on his entry into the service of an institution, the person concerned could not rely on previous decisions concerning the expatriation allowance, nor, therefore, on the infringement of acquired rights.

(see para. 112)