JUDGMENT OF THE EUROPEAN UNION CIVIL SERVICE TRIBUNAL
(First Chamber)

11 February 2014

Case F‑65/12

Enrico Maria Armani

v

European Commission

(Civil service — Remuneration — Family allowances — Entitlement to the dependent child allowance — Dependent child — Child of the applicant’s wife)

Application:      under Article 270 TFEU, applicable to the EAEC Treaty pursuant to Article 106a thereof, in which Mr Armani seeks annulment of the decision of the European Commission not to grant him entitlement to a dependent child allowance in respect of his wife’s child.

Held:      The decision of 17 August 2011, by which the European Commission refused to recognise Mr Armani’s entitlement to a dependent child allowance in respect of his wife’s child, is annulled. The action is dismissed as to the remainder. The European Commission is to bear its own costs and is ordered to pay those incurred by Mr Armani.

Summary

Officials — Remuneration — Family allowances — Dependent child allowance — Conditions for granting — Actual maintenance — Concept

(Staff Regulations, Annex VII, Art. 2(2))

The concept of actual maintenance of a child, appearing in Article 2(2), first subparagraph, of Annex VII to the Staff Regulations, means actual responsibility for all or part of the child’s essential needs, in particular in relation to board and lodging, clothing, education and medical care and costs.

Consequently, where an official takes actual responsibility for all or part of the essential needs of his spouse’s child he must be considered to be actually maintaining that child and, as a result, having that child as a dependent, within the meaning of Article 2(2), first subparagraph, of Annex VII to the Staff Regulations. In that regard, neither that provision nor any other provision of the Staff Regulations makes an official’s right to receive the dependent child allowance in respect of his spouse’s child totally conditional on that spouse not being an official or other member of staff of the European Union. Nor can such a condition be inferred from the general scheme of the provisions of the Staff Regulations.

(see paras 31-32, 40-41)

See:

11 July 2000, T‑134/99 Skrzypek v Commission, para. 69; 10 October 2006, T‑87/04 Arranz Benitez v Parliament, para. 42