Case T-655/18: Judgment of the General Court of 13 October 2021 — Aupicon and Others v EEAS (Civil service — Officials — Members of the temporary staff — Members of the contract staff — Remuneration — EEAS staff posted to a third country — Article 10 of Annex X to the Staff Regulations — Annual assessment of the allowance for living conditions — ‘Guidelines establishing the methodology to fix the living conditions allowances’ — Decision fixing the rate of the allowance for living conditions paid to staff posted to Ghana at 20 % — Failure to draw up the questionnaire required by the guidelines — Procedural irregularity — Manifest error of assessment)
Date: 2021-10-13
Institutions: General Court
Subjects: European official, Ghana, allowances and expenses, contract staff, living conditions, posted worker, staff regulations (EU), temporary employment, third country








C_2021490EN.01002901.xml










6.12.2021   


EN


Official Journal of the European Union


C 490/29






Judgment of the General Court of 13 October 2021 — Aupicon and Others v EEAS
(Case T-655/18) (1)

(Civil service - Officials - Members of the temporary staff - Members of the contract staff - Remuneration - EEAS staff posted to a third country - Article 10 of Annex X to the Staff Regulations - Annual assessment of the allowance for living conditions - ‘Guidelines establishing the methodology to fix the living conditions allowances’ - Decision fixing the rate of the allowance for living conditions paid to staff posted to Ghana at 20 % - Failure to draw up the questionnaire required by the guidelines - Procedural irregularity - Manifest error of assessment)
(2021/C 490/30)
Language of the case: French

Parties


Applicants: Delphine Aupicon (Gaborone, Botswana) and the 10 other applicants whose names are listed in the annex to the judgment (represented by: N. de Montigny, lawyer)

Defendant: European External Action Service (represented by: S. Marquardt and R. Spáč, acting as Agents, and M. Troncoso Ferrer, F.-M. Hislaire and C. García Fernández, lawyers)

Re:

Application under Article 270 TFEU seeking annulment, first, of the decision of the EEAS Director-General for Budget and Administration of 19 December 2017 fixing the allowance for living conditions referred to in Article 10 of Annex X to the Staff Regulations of Officials of the European Union for the financial year 2018, inasmuch as that decision fixes the rate of the allowance for living conditions paid to EU staff posted to Ghana at 20 % of the reference amount and, second, in so far as is necessary, of the applicants’ payslips for the month of January 2018, inasmuch as that decision is applied therein for the first time.

Operative part of the judgment

The Court:






1.


Annuls the decision of the European External Action Service (EEAS) Director-General for Budget and Administration of 19 December 2017 fixing the allowance for living conditions referred to in Article 10 of Annex X to the Staff Regulations of Officials of the European Union for the financial year 2018, inasmuch as that decision fixes, with effect from 1 January 2018, the rate of the allowance for living conditions paid to EU staff posted to Ghana at 20 % of the reference amount;










2.


Annuls the payslips of Ms Delphine Aupicon and of the other applicants whose names are listed in the annex to the judgment, issued by the EEAS for the month of January 2018, inasmuch as the decision of the EEAS of 19 December 2017 fixing, with effect from 1 January 2018, the rate of the allowance for living conditions paid to EU staff posted to Ghana at 20 % of the reference amount is applied to those payslips;










3.


Orders the EEAS to pay the costs.






(1)  OJ C 25, 21.1.2019.