Judgment — ECLI:EU:T:2003:41
Date: 2003-02-26
Based on: Merger Treaty (1965)
Subject matter: Staff regulations and employment conditions - EC
Concepts: Invalidity pension
Procedure: Staff cases - unfounded

SUMMARY — CASE T-59/01 
Summary 
1. Officials - Invalidity - Initiation of the invalidity procedure - Conditions 
(Staff Regulations, Art. 78; Annex VIII, Art. 13) 
2. Officials - Invalidity — Obligation of the administration to determine whether 
an official who has resigned is fit for work - None 
(Staff Regulations, Art. 78) 
1. It follows from the provisions of Article 13 of Annex VIII to the Staff 
Regulations that the procedure to establish invalidity may be initiated only in 
relation to an official who is obliged to end his service because he is suffering from 
invalidity. Consequently, an official who left the service several years ago and who 
suffers from an illness which would render him incapable of performing his duties 
if he were still in active employment is not entitled to request, on that ground alone, 
the initiation of the procedure to establish invalidity. Furthermore, that official also 
does not satisfy the second of the cumulative conditions laid down in Article 13, 
which states that an official requesting an invalidity pension must be acquiring 
pension rights at the time when the Invalidity Committee recognises him to be 
suffering from total permanent invalidity. 
(see paras 31-33) 
See: 12/83 Bahr v Commission [1984] ECR 2155, paras 12 and 13; T-295/97 Coussios 
v Commission [1999] ECR-SC I-A-103 and II-577, paras 37 and 38 
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NARDONE v COMMISSION 
2. It is not apparent from the case-law of the Court or from any other source of 
Community law that there is a general obligation for a Community institution to 
determine whether an official who has left voluntarily is fit for work. 
Where an official considers that his state of health makes it necessary for him to 
leave the service, it is for him to submit a request before leaving, in accordance 
with Article 90 of the Staff Regulations, for the award of an invalidity pension 
under Article 78 of the Staff Regulations. Since officials are deemed to be familiar 
with the provisions of the Staff Regulations, an official finding himself in such a 
situation must take advantage of this option if he wishes to receive an invalidity 
pension. Not to do so must be regarded as failure to exercise due care, particularly 
as he is bound to be more familiar than the institution to which he is attached with 
his medical history and his state of health at the time of his resignation. Thus, unless 
there are exceptional circumstances, it may not be alleged that an institution, at least 
in the case of an official who leaves voluntarily without being asked to do so by that 
institution, has failed to convene an invalidity committee on its own initiative when 
the official concerned had not himself made such a request. 
(see paras 38. 40) 
See: Bähr v Commission, cited above; T-27/99 Drabbe v Commission [2000] ECR-SC 
I-A-213 and II-955 
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