Keywords
Summary

Keywords

Freedom of movement for persons - Workers - Equal treatment - Reduction of the amount of pension awarded to a migrant worker by the amount awarded to his spouse under the scheme of another Member State - Spouse's pension not involving any increase in the couple's total income - Not permissible

(EC Treaty, Art. 48 (now, after amendment, Art. 39 EC))

Summary

$$The exercise of the right to free movement within the Community is impeded if a worker's social advantage is lost or reduced simply because a benefit of the same kind awarded to a worker's spouse under the legislation of another Member State is taken into account when, on the one hand, the grant of that latter benefit has not led to any increase in the couple's total income and, on the other, there has been a concomitant reduction of the same amount in the personal pension received by the worker under the legislation of that same State. Such a result might well discourage Community workers from exercising their right to free movement and would therefore constitute a barrier to that freedom enshrined in Article 48 of the Treaty (now, after amendment, Article 39 EC).

In those circumtances, where the competent authorities of a Member State apply a provision of law

- which fixes the amount of the retirement pension awarded to a married worker,

- which provides for that pension to be reduced, by the amount of a pension awarded to his spouse under the scheme of another Member State, but

- which provides for the application of a derogating clause in respect of overlapping where the pension paid elsewhere is less than a certain amount,

it is contrary to Article 48 of the EC Treaty for those authorities to reduce the amount of the pension awarded to a migrant worker by the amount of a pension awarded to his spouse under the scheme of another Member State, when the grant of that latter pension does not involve any increase in the couple's total income.

( see paras 41-42, 45 and operative part )