This newsletter deals with the entitlement of the surviving spouse of an official to receive a pension after the death of the official. Such a survivor’s pension was denied in a case recently decided upon by the European Court of Justice (ECJ). The ECJ confirms that the Commission was right in refusing a survivor’s pension to the husband of an official with whom he had not been married for the required time of one full year. A status as cohabitant (i.e. their status for the period before being married) does not fulfil the strict requirements of “marriage” in the sense of the Staff Regulations.
