Keywords
Summary

Keywords

1. Officials — Conditions of Employment of Other Servants — Legal nature — Regulation — Obligations of Member States — Observance of the complementary nature of the Community system of unemployment benefits — Entitlement of former member of the temporary staff to Community unemployment benefits — Application of a national rule against the overlapping of benefits — (Art. 249, second para., EC; Conditions of Employment of Other Servants, Art. 28a(1), second subpara.; Council Regulation No 259/68)

2. Freedom of movement for persons — Workers — Equal treatment — Variations among Member States arising from differences between national social security legislation — Whether permissible — Conditions — Person carrying on an activity as a post-graduate student — Person deemed to be a trainee fellowship student who is not entitled to any rights under the national system of unemployment benefits — Whether permissible — (Art. 39(2) EC; Council Regulation No 1612/68, Art. 7(4))

Summary

1. By virtue of the second paragraph of Article 249 EC, the Conditions of Employment of Other Servants of the European Communities, laid down by Regulation No 259/68, have general application, are binding in their entirety and are directly applicable in all Member States. It follows that, in addition to having effects within the Community administration, they are also binding on Member States in so far as their cooperation is necessary in order to give effect to those measures.

According to the second subparagraph of Article 28a(1) of the Conditions of Employment of Other Servants, where a former member of the temporary staff is entitled to unemployment benefits under a national scheme, the amount of those benefits will be deducted from the allowance paid under the Community system. This provision therefore means that the relationship between the Community system of unemployment benefits and the systems of the Member States is a complementary one. Therefore, that complementary relationship cannot be disregarded in the application of a national system of unemployment benefits and, specifically, of a rule against the overlapping of benefits under that system, to a former member of the temporary staff who resides in that Member State and is entitled to unemployment benefits paid under the Conditions of Employment of Other Servants.

see paras 32-35, operative part 1

2. Community law does not detract from the power of the Member States to organise their social security systems. In the absence of harmonisation at Community level, it is for the legislation of each Member State to determine both the conditions concerning the right or duty to be insured with a social security scheme and the conditions for entitlement to benefits. Nevertheless, the Member States must comply with Community law when exercising that power.

In this respect, while prohibiting each Member State, within the scope of the Treaty, from applying its national law in a manner which produces a different result depending on the nationality of the persons concerned, the principle of non-discrimination, which is laid down in both Article 39(2) EC and Article 7 of Regulation No 1612/68 on freedom of movement for workers within the Community, does not apply to any variations in treatment which there may be among the Member States, and which arise from differences between national laws, so long as these variations affect in the same way those to whom the laws apply, according to objective criteria and without regard to their nationality.

Therefore, in particular, the principle of non-discrimination laid down by Article 7(4) of Regulation No 1612/68 does not preclude a person carrying on an activity as a post-graduate student, like that performed under a contract intended to enhance the professional qualifications of young workers, who receives no salary but does receive a monthly amount to cover travel and subsistence costs and who is responsible for payment of social security contributions and taxes, from being deemed, in a Member State, to be a trainee fellowship student who is not entitled to any rights under the national system of unemployment benefits, even though in other Member States a person carrying on similar activities is deemed to be carrying on an occupational activity and is entitled to benefits under the unemployment benefits system.

see paras 37-38, 40, operative part 2