*Update 25.09.2025 The outcome of the court case related to the removal of the expatriation allowance for some staff in the Parliament while working from outside the place of employment during Covid is added as footnote [**].*

Original article: Generation 2004 has consistently asked for an extension of the current 10-day quota to telework from anywhere (also sometimes erroneously called ‘telework from abroad’) (TWA). DG HR’s often-used argument to reject this request is that the average use of this possibility remains well below the 10 days given.

Not everyone uses the days and those who do take advantage of this right make use, on average, of only 7.5 days[*]. Why bother increasing the number of days when there’s evidently little demand? For this reason Generation 2004 encourages you to use and declare those 10 days, you can even plan ahead and declare your intentions, you don’t have to wait until the last moment. Remember, any and all of those 10 days remaining on 31.12.2025 will be lost forever: there is no carry-over.

The terminology lends itself to confusion: where is ‘abroad’? 

Several colleagues reached out to us also this summer to clarify the applicable rules described in the Commission Decision on working time and hybrid working (WTHW, Article 11).  Much of the confusion related to the general overuse of the word ‘abroad’, a word which is not present in the WTHW decision. Borders are not mentioned there either and do not form part of any criteria. So, ‘telework from abroad’ as an explanation for TWA is not only misleading, but often incorrectly discouraging for cross-border colleagues. ‘TWOPE’ is used in the WTHW decision and staff matters (either ‘Telework away from the place of employment’ or ‘telework outside the place of employment’, see the working time and hybrid working (WTHW) decision and its evaluation). Please read TWA as ‘teleworking from anywhere’, it’s a little clearer.  

Nevertheless, we can understand the nervousness of falling into the cracks between the rules, there’s already been at least one disciplinary process for someone not complying with the TWA rules: The Investigation and Disciplinary Office of the Commission (IDOC) activity report 2021, page 12, oddly lists it under ‘unauthorised absences’, although the colleague was indeed working, just from elsewhere. 

In short: TWA = TWOPE ≠ regular telework location 

So far so good, but let us clarify the concept of teleworking from your normal place of residence (as declared in sysper). 

How far away from the place of employment can I do normal telework? 

Article 20 of the staff regulations doesn’t put a figure on how far away your home may be, timewise or distance-wise ‘an official shall reside either in the place where he is employed or at no greater distance there from as is compatible with the proper performance of his duties.’ 

What does this mean exactly? There is no clear or universal answer to this question. When asking for more precision, you may receive a reply that the reasonable time should be within (roughly) 2 hours of the office. But how far is this really, at what time of day and by which means of transport? An otherwise reasonable distance can quickly become less than reasonable where works/upgrades/recurring problems appear.  

What if I live on the other side of a border from my office building? 

This is where the explanation of TWA as teleworking from ‘abroad’ is misleading. WTHW Article 11 makes no mention of borders. When cross-border colleagues, e.g. in Luxembourg, Karlsruhe or Ispra telework normally, that is that they telework from their normal places of residence, they are not considered to be teleworking from abroad within the meaning of TWOPE or TWA. It is well-known that a high number of colleagues are cross-border commuters e.g. due to the high costs of housing in Luxembourg. That is, it is absolutely normal and is not limited to 10 days per year.  

So Luxembourg isn’t being given special treatment? 

No, a (roughly) 2-hour distance is a (roughly) 2-hour distance, WTHW Article 11 makes no mention of borders. It just so happens that in the case of the sites of Luxembourg and Karlsruhe a 2-hour radius of reasonability reaches over national borders: many colleagues cross the border to get to work. Take the BECH building in Luxembourg as an example (home to Eurostat) and a random distance of 30km which should really be much less than 2 hours of travel, on the linked map national borders are crossed. 

And if I don’t cross a border, it still counts as normal telework, right? 

Unfortunately, the rules don’t lend themselves to this interpretation. In larger countries, you may not even need to leave the country to surpass the distance that can be reached within the 2-hour ‘reasonable’ time limit and that limit is rather subjective. It can be individual, e.g. if it’s less than 2 hours on google maps from home to office by car, does it matter that I don’t have access to a car? Does that distance depend on you being able to quickly jump in a car and progress fast to a motorway to reach your office within a reasonable time or whether you have to fully rely on public transport? Working in Brussels you will also surely be able to find places even within Belgium that fall out of that range and where from you will not be able to reach your office within a reasonable time. Consequently, please don’t take it for granted: check whether sysper would allow you to register such a place as your normal residence before moving there, and get in touch with staff contact in case of doubt. 

But I’m not outside my country of origin! 

You don’t have to be! A Belgian colleague working in Brussels equally has 10 days to work from anywhere. Many colleagues do not even realise that they are entitled to these days: everyone employed by the Commission (‘statutory staff’) has these 10 days (even Blue Book trainees have 5!), independent of their place of recruitment, place of employment, centre of interests or family situation. The WTHW decision provides each staff member with the possibility to use ‘up to 10 working days per calendar year for telework away from the place of employment upon request and subject to the agreement of the line manager.’ (Article 11.1 WTHW) Each request needs to be encoded and signed in SYSPER. Any change needs to follow the same workflow. 

Further, the WTHW decision gives line managers discretion to allow further TWOPE/TWA days (‘ETWOPE’) in exceptional circumstances (WTHW Article 11.2): please consider all of your options and make use of them! 

Why are we reminding you now? 

Because in contrast to annual leave, these 10 days must be used within the calendar year. So our remaining 2025-days cannot be transferred to 2026: that means in practice that any days not used by 23 December 2025 are lost forever.  

The 10 TWA days are independent of any expatriation allowance or foreign residence allowance, you have 10 days, please use them! Do it now! Here’s  how to register TWOPE/TWA days in the system. You can always change those days later if your plans change. The important point is to make every effort to ensure that there are 0 days left in in your account! Why not get a head start on the 2026 TWOPE/TWA days and request them now? Why not extend that holiday? 

Surely 10 days is already good enough? What’s available elsewhere? 

At the European Central Bank (ECB) ‘… staff may telework from a location within the Union for a maximum of 90 working days per calendar year … staff may telework from a location outside the Union for up to 20 working days per calendar year…” (Art. 5.1bis). Core time starts on Monday at 14h and ends on Friday at noon. Staff at the European Patent Office (EPO) may telework from abroad for 60 days per year. and have a MINIMUM presence in the office of 60 days PER YEAR! In the meantime, our own Corporate Management Board has expressed a desire (23.01.2023) to see more presence in the office, while our physical working environment is constantly deteriorating through forcing hot-desking. 

Still have questions? 

We hope you have found clarification to all your questions, but please do not hesitate to contact us, should this not be the case! 

As always, if you have any questions or comments, feel free to contact us! 

If you appreciate our work, please consider becoming a member of Generation 2004. 

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[*] Figures from 19.10.2023: 

• Total number of Staff that used the possibility of teleworking outside the place
  of employment (10 days max): 17 367 

• Total number of days teleworked outside the place of employment: 128 966.5 

• Average days of telework outside the place of employment taken per Staff member who made use of this possibility: 7.5 

(Sysper data, 9/6/2023 for period 1/4/2022 to 30/4/2023, we have asked for more up-to-date figures on several occasions) 

[**] ‘Following the EU Court of Justice’s judgment of 19 April 2023 (Case T-39/21) regarding the suspension of expatriation or foreign residence allowances due to part-time remote work for family reasons during the Covid-19 pandemic, the Secretary-General chose to retroactively restore these allowances for all affected staff (around 345).’ Annual Activity Report 2024 Directorate-General for Personnel