Opinion of the Advocate General — ECLI:EU:C:2007:169
Date: 2007-03-15
Language of the case: French
Based on: Merger Treaty (1965)
Subject matter: Staff regulations and employment conditions - EC
Procedure: Appeal - unfounded;Staff cases

Summary Officials – Remuneration – Expatriation allowance – Conditions for granting (Staff Regulations of Officials, Annex VII, Art. 4(1)(a)) The concept of ‘State’ for the purposes of the last sentence of the second indent of Article 4(1)(a) of Annex VII to the Staff Regulations necessarily includes the permanent representation of a Member State to the European Union. Therefore, the members of the staff of such a permanent representation, including its administrative and technical staff, must, since they are part of the structures of that representation, be considered to be working for the Member State concerned and, consequently, to be in a situation of ‘expatriation’ within the meaning of the above provision, regardless of the particular and specific functions carried out within that body, since entitlement to the expatriation allowance is not conditional upon the existence of a direct legal tie linking the person concerned and the State at issue. Such an interpretation is, moreover, consistent with the autonomy enjoyed by the Member States in the internal organisation of their permanent representations. It is for each Member State to determine which bodies will form part of its permanent representation and to identify the public interests which the various bodies coexisting with the permanent representation must promote in relations with the Community institutions.