Judgment — ECLI:EU:T:2016:392
Date: 2016-07-06
Language of the case: Italian
Court formation: Appeals Chamber
Based on: Merger Treaty (1965)
Subject matter: Staff regulations and employment conditions - EC
Procedure: Appeal - unfounded;Staff cases
Origin: Italy

Summary Officials — Pensions — Survivor’s pension — Maintenance fixed by agreement between the former spouses — Capping of the survivor’s pension (Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, Art. 25; Staff Regulations, Annex VIII, Arts 18 and 27) According to Article 27 of Annex VIII to the Staff Regulations, the divorced spouse of an official or a former official shall be entitled to a survivor's pension, as defined in Chapter 4 of that annex, provided that, on the death of the former spouse, he/she can justify entitlement on his/her own account to receive maintenance from him/her by virtue of a court order or as a result of an officially registered settlement in force between himself/herself and his/her former spouse. Under that same provision, the survivor’s pension may not exceed the amount of maintenance paid at the time of death of the former spouse, the amount having been adjusted in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 82 of the Staff Regulations. However, Article 18 of Annex VIII to the Staff Regulations, which provides, in essence, for the payment of a survivor’s pension, the minimum amount of which is equal to 35% of the last basic salary of the deceased former official, applies exclusively to a surviving spouse who has not been divorced. In that regard, it is by Article 27 of Annex VIII to the Staff Regulations that the European Union demonstrates its observance of the rule laid down in Article 25 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union concerning the specific case of a divorced spouse of a deceased official by undertaking to meet the former official’s obligation to pay maintenance to the divorced surviving spouse. Nonetheless, Article 25 of the Charter does not contain a rule conferring on individuals a subjective right in respect of a minimum amount of survivor’s pension for persons covered by Article 27 of Annex VIII to the Staff Regulations. (see paras 13-15) See: Judgment of 15 January 2014 in Association de médiation sociale, C‑176/12, EU:C:2014:2, para. 42