Luxembourg / High Administrative Court / 38129C

Appeal by Mr. X against a decision of the administrative court
Policy area
Education, training, youth, sport
Deciding body type
National Court/Tribunal
Deciding body
High administrative court
Type
Decision
Decision date
16/02/2017
  • Luxembourg / High Administrative Court / 38129C

    Key facts of the case: 

    The case concerned an application for a financial aid for higher studies. The applicant, a French resident studying in Luxembourg and whose parents were working in Luxembourg, saw his application rejected by the Minister of Higher Education and Research. The rejection was based on the principle of non-accumulation of financial aids, and the fact that the student had not delivered the requested document from a French funding body for higher studies (Centres régionaux des oeuvres universitaires et scolaires), which indicated how much financial aid the student could receive from that body. The applicant argued that the request was irrelevant since he could in any case not qualify for the said French financial aid, and had therefore never introduced an application to obtain it.

    Outcome of the case: 

    The Court held that the competent administrative authority should have understood that the appellant was in a situation of material impossibility to provide the documents that were requested of him. Therefore, the Court decided in favour of the appellant and annulled the decision made by the Minister of Higher Education and Research, requesting him to re-evaluate the appelant’s application. The Court condemned the State to the bear the cost of the proceedings. 

     

  • Paragraphs referring to EU Charter

    The Court therefore finds that the actual point at issue in the present dispute is not at the level of the applicability or even the scope of the anti-cumulation provisions of Article 8 of the Law of 24 July 2014, at least with regard to a possible French state aid scheme, from which Mr ... could possibly have received support on the basis of social criteria from the competent CROUS of the region ..., but precisely at the level of the collaboration between the administration and the administrated as evidenced both by the law of 1 December 1978 regulating non-contentious administrative procedures and, more particularly, by its Article 1 paragraph 3 providing that the rules of the Grand Ducal Regulation of 8 June 1979 on the procedure to be followed by the State and municipal administrations are called upon to ensure the procedural collaboration of the administration, as well as the provisions directly invoked by the appellant which emerge from Article 41 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union concerning the principle of good administration applicable to the extent that Union law is implemented specifically concerning State aids for higher education which have become eligible for the children of frontier workers in accordance with Article 7(2) of Regulation (EU) No 492/22011 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 5 April 2011 on freedom of movement for workers within the Union.

  • Paragraphs referring to EU Charter (original language)

    La Cour est dès lors amenée à constater que le point litigieux effectif du présent litige ne se situe pas au niveau de la question de l’applicabilité, voire de la portée des dispositions anti-cumul de l’article 8 de la loi du 24 juillet 2014, du moins en ce qui concerne un éventuel régime d’aide étatique française dont Monsieur ... aurait le cas échéant eu une aide sur base des critères sociaux auprès du CROUS compétent de la région …, mais précisément au niveau de la collaboration entre l’administration et l’administré telle que se dégageant à la fois de la loi du 1er décembre 1978 réglant la procédure administrative non contentieuse et plus particulièrement de l’alinéa 3 de son article 1er prévoyant que les règles du règlement grand - ducal du 8 juin 1979 relatif à la procédure à suivre par les administrations relevant de l’Etat et des communes sont appelées à assurer la collaboration procédurale de l’administration, de même que des dispositions directement invoquées par l’appelant se dégageant de l’article 41 de la Charte des droits fondamentaux de l’Union européenne concernant le principe de bonne administration applicable dans la mesure où il y a mise en œuvre du droit de l’Union Européenne concernant plus précisément les aides étatiques pour études supérieures devenue s éligibles dans le chef des enfants de travailleurs frontaliers en application des dispositions de l’article 7, paragraphe 2, du règlement UE 492/22011 du Parlement Européen et du Conseil du 5 avril 2011 relatif à l a libre circulation des travailleurs au sein de l’Union.