Keywords

Summary



Keywords

1. Officials - Remuneration - Family allowances - Household allowance - Conditions for granting - Marriage - Definition - Registered partnership - Excluded

(Staff Regulations, Annex VII, Art. 1(2)(a))

2. Officials - Remuneration - Family allowances - Household allowance - Conditions for granting - Discrimination on the grounds of sex - Infringement of the principle of equal pay between men and women - None

(EC Treaty, Art.119 (Arts. 117 to 120 of the EC Treaty have been replaced by Arts. 136 EC to 143 EC); Staff Regulations, Annex VII, Art.1(2)(a))

3. Officials - Equal treatment - Registered partnership and marriage - Definition - Situations not comparable

4. Community law - Principles - Fundamental rights - Respect for family life - Refusal to grant a household allowance to an official - Decision capable of constituting an interference in private and family life within the meaning of Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights - Not so capable

(European Convention on Human Rights, Art. 8; Staff Regulations, Annex VII, Art.1(2)(a))

Summary

1. The intention of the Community legislature was to grant entitlement to the household allowance under Article 1(2)(a) of Annex VII to the Staff Regulations only to married couples. Only the legislature can, where appropriate, adopt measures to alter that situation, for example by amending provisions of the Staff Regulations.

The fact that, in a limited number of Member States, a registered partnership is assimilated, although incompletely, to marriage cannot have the consequence that, by mere interpretation, persons whose legal status is distinct from that of marriage can be covered by the term married official as used in the Staff Regulations.

According to the definition generally accepted by the Member States, the term marriage means a union between two persons of the opposite sex. Since 1989 an increasing number of Member States have introduced, alongside marriage, statutory arrangements granting legal recognition to various forms of union between partners of the same sex or of the opposite sex and conferring on such unions certain effects which, both between the partners and as regards third parties, are the same as or comparable to those of marriage. It is clear, however, that apart from their great diversity, such arrangements for registering relationships between couples not previously recognised in law are regarded in the Member States concerned as being distinct from marriage. In such cirumstances the Community judicature cannot interpret the Staff Regulations in such a way that legal situations distinct from marriage are treated in the same way as marriage.

( see paras 34-39 )

2. Article 1(2)(a) of Annex VII to the Staff Regulations, which restricts the household allowance to married officials, cannot therefore be regarded as being discriminatory on grounds of the sex of the person concerned, or, therefore, as being in breach of Article 119 of the Treaty (Articles 117 to 120 of the EC Treaty have been replaced by Articles 136 to 143 EC).

It is irrelevant for the purposes of granting the household allowance whether the official is a man or a woman.

( see para. 46 )

3. The principle of equal treatment can apply only to persons in comparable situations. In assessing whether the situation of an official who has registered a partnership between persons of the same sex is comparable to that of a married official, the Community judicature cannot disregard the views prevailing within the Community as a whole.

Since the existing situation in the Member States of the Community as regards recognition of partnerships between persons of the same sex or of the opposite sex reflects a great diversity of laws and the absence of any general assimilation of marriage and other forms of statutory union, the situation of an official who has registered a partnership in Sweden cannot be held to be comparable, for the purposes of applying the Staff Regulations, to that of a married official.

( see paras 48-51 )

4. The refusal by the Community administration to grant a household allowance to one of its officials does not affect the situation of the official in question as regards his civil status and, since it only concerns the relationship between the official and his employer, does not of itself give rise to the transmission of any personal information to persons outside the Community administration. Such a decision is not therefore capable of constituting interference in private and family life within the meaning of Article 8 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.

( see paras 59-60 )