CELEX: C2006/154/63
Language: en
Date: 2006-07-01 00:00:00
Title: Case F-53/06: Action brought on  30 April 2006  — Claudia Gualtieri v Commission of the European Communities

1.7.2006   
            
            
               EN
            
            
               Official Journal of the European Union
            
            
               C 154/27
            
         Action brought on 30 April 2006 — Claudia Gualtieri v Commission of the European Communities
   (Case F-53/06)
   (2006/C 154/63)
   Language of the case: Italian
   Parties
   
      Applicant: Claudia Gualtieri (Brussels, Belgium) (represented by: P. Gualtieri and M. Gualtieri, Lawyers)
   
      Defendant: Commission of the European Communities
   Form of order sought
   
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               Annulment of the decision adopted by the Director-General of Personnel and Administration on 30 January 2006 rejecting complaint No R/783/05, registered on 17 October 2005, seeking annulment of the decision adopted by the DG ADMIN, communicated on 5 September 2005, by which the applicant's claim that she was entitled to the full daily subsistence allowance was rejected;
            
         
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               annulment of the decision communicated on 5 September 2005;
            
         
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               annulment of all of the defendant's communications received each month relating to the determination of the allowance in question;
            
         
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               an order that the defendant pay the applicant, with effect from 1 January 2004 until 31 December 2005, the daily subsistence allowance and the monthly allowance provided for by the Commission Decision on Seconded National Experts (SNEs);
            
         
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               in the alternative, an order that the defendant pay the applicant the abovementioned allowances with effect from 2 February 2005, the date of the applicant's de facto separation from her husband and the date when she ceased to live with him, or, in the further alternative, from the 4 July 2005, the date when the divorce petition was lodged with the District Court Brussels, until 31 December 2005;
            
         
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               order the defendant to pay the costs.
            
         Pleas in law and main arguments
   The applicant, a national expert on secondment to the Commission, complains that it was unlawful to reduce to 25 % the daily subsistence allowance provided for under the rules on SNEs and to fail to pay the further monthly allowance also provided for under those rules.
   First of all, the applicant submits that in the documents preparatory to her taking up her appointment the allowances in question, being in the nature of pay, were expressly stated to be payable in full notwithstanding the fact that she had declared that she was married to an official of the European Union resident in Brussels. She adds that her employment contract was signed on 7 January 2004 on that basis and the conditions of remuneration could not be changed unilaterally.
   The applicant also alleges unlawfulness under Article 241 EC and the third paragraph of Article 20 of the Decision on SNEs. That provision discriminates in favour of individuals who opt for a non-marital relationship as against members of a lawful union. It also results in unequal treatment since it does not allow the applicant to receive additional remuneration on an equal footing with other SNEs, whether married or not. The provision in question infringes Article 14 of the Europen Convention on Human Rights, Articles 2, 3, 13 and 141 EC and Council Directive 2000/43/EC of 29 June 2000 implementing the principle of equal treatment between persons irrespective of racial or ethnic origin. (1)
   
   
      (1)  OJ L 180, 19.7.2000, page 22.