Keywords
Summary

Keywords

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1. Actions for annulment ° Judgment granting annulment ° Indication of measures to be taken as a result of the annulment ° Lack of jurisdiction of the Community judicature

(EEC Treaty, Art. 176)

2. Officials ° Pensions ° Weighting ° Applicability, under the Staff Regulations, of the weighting for the pensioner' s country of residence ° Regulation, not in the form of an amendment to the Staff Regulations, fixing the weighting applicable to pensioners residing in a non-member country as 100 ° Breach of the principle of hierarchy of norms ° Unlawful

(Staff Regulations, Art. 82(1); Council Regulation No 2175/88, Art. 3)

3. Officials ° Pensions ° Weighting ° Recipient of a pension not benefiting, as a result of an unlawful regulation, from the weighting fixed for his country of residence °Entitlement to default interest

Summary

1. The Community judicature may not, when upholding an application for annulment, dictate to the institution from which the contested measure emanated what action is to be taken in consequence of the judgment; it must confine itself to referring the matter back to the institution concerned in view of the fact that it is the institution which adopted the contested act that must take the necessary measures to comply with the judgment. That is why even a supervisory function to ensure compliance with the judgment, which, in order to be effective, would call for it to be empowered to direct the defendant as to what measures should be adopted, does not fall within the powers conferred on the Community judicature by the Treaty.

2. It follows from the very wording of Article 82 of the Staff Regulations that pensioners are entitled to have applied to their pensions the weighting laid down for the country in which they reside, even if they are established outside the Community. It is only where no weighting has been fixed for their country of residence that a figure of 100 must be applied to their pensions, so that the pensioners concerned do not benefit from any weighting.

Therefore, by virtue of the principle of the hierarchy of norms, Article 3 of Regulation No 2175/88, which was adopted without the procedure laid down for the amendment of the Staff Regulations by the second subparagraph of Article 24(1) of the Merger Treaty and Article 10 of the Staff Regulations having been followed is illegal, in so far as, contrary to the requirements of Article 82, it fixes the weighting applicable to the pension of a person who demonstrates that he is resident in a non-member country as 100.

3. An obligation to pay default interest can arise only where the amount of the principal sum is certain or can at least be ascertained on the basis of established objective factors. That is the case where a weighting in excess of 100 has been determined for a country but, pursuant to a regulation subsequently declared illegal, has not been applied to the pension of a person residing in that country.