Judgment — ECLI:EU:T:2017:291
Date: 2017-04-28
Language of the case: French
Court formation: Eighth Chamber
Based on: Merger Treaty (1965)
Subject matter: Staff regulations and employment conditions - EC
Procedure: Staff cases - unfounded

Summary — Judgment of the General Court (Eighth Chamber), 28 April 2017 Officials — Remuneration — Family allowances — Education allowance — Education costs — Definition — Contributions paid to non-profit associations for the participation of children in a specific programme and non-subsidised education — Not included (Staff Regulations, Annex VII, Art. 3(1)) It is apparent from Article 3(1) of Annex VII to the Staff Regulations that the concept of ‘education costs’ concerns costs connected with the regular full-time attendance by an official’s dependent child at ‘a primary or secondary school which charges fees’. According to Article 3 of the General Implementing Provisions (GIPs) concerning the granting of the education allowance provided for by Article 3 of Annex VII to the Staff Regulations, adopted by the European Parliament, education costs include ‘registration and attendance fees at educational establishments’. Thus worded, education costs cover both fees enabling a pupil to access an educational establishment (registration fees) and fees enabling him to attend classes and participate properly in the programmes provided by that establishment (attendance fees). The concept of ‘education costs’ is an autonomous concept of EU law and that, accordingly, national descriptions or classifications relating to school fees are not decisive in that regard. It also follows that the description or classification of the contributions made by the parents to the non-profit associations concerned in no way alters the fact that the educational establishments in question do not require registration or attendance fees. It necessarily follows that the contributions required by those non-profit associations for the participation of children in the specific programme and non-subsidised education provided by those schools cannot constitute fees for registration and attendance at those schools. In that regard, Article 3 of the GIPs differentiates ‘all other costs’, in respect of which no reimbursement is permitted. That expression concerns not only ‘extra-curricular’ costs but also ‘other expenses connected with following the curriculum of the educational establishment attended’. It follows that, as the contributions made to the non-profit associations concerned cannot be classified as education costs, they constitute costs arising from requirements and activities connected with following the curriculum, namely the participation of children in the specific programme and non-subsidised education provided by the schools in question, and must be regarded as ‘other expenses connected with following the curriculum of the educational establishment attended’ for the purposes of the said Article 3 of the GIPs, which, according to that provision, are not covered by the education allowance. (see paras 20, 30, 36, 38, 40)