Opinion of the Advocate General — ECLI:EU:C:2000:214
Date: 2000-04-13
Language of the case: German
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: Social security for migrant workers;Free movement of workers
Procedure: Reference for a preliminary ruling
Origin: Germany

Summary of the Judgment 
1. Social security for migrant workers — Power of the Member States to organise then-
social security schemes — Limits — Compliance with Community law — Treaty 
rules on freedom of movement for workers and European citizenship 
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SUMMARY — CASE C-135/99 
2. Social security for migrant workers — Equal treatment — Requirement to take into 
account, for the purpose of the grant of an old-age pension, periods devoted to child-
rearing completed in another Member State — Person who was a frontier worker at 
the time when the child was born 
(EC Treaty, Arts 8 A, 48 and 51 (now, after amendment, Arts 18 EC, 39 EC and 42 
EC)) 
1. Although Member States retain the 
power to organise their social security 
schemes, they must none the less, when 
exercising that power, comply with 
Community law and, in particular, the 
Treaty provisions on freedom of move­
ment for workers or again the freedom 
of every citizen of the Union to move 
and reside in the territory of the 
Member States. 
(see para. 33) 
2. Articles 8a, 48 and 51 of the Treaty 
(now, after amendment, Articles 18 
EC, 39 EC and 42 EC) require that, 
for the purpose of the grant of an old-
age pension, the competent institution 
of a Member State take into account, 
as though they had been completed in 
the national territory, periods devoted 
to child-rearing completed in another 
Member State by a person who, at the 
time when the child was born, was a 
frontier worker employed in the terri­
tory of the first Member State and 
residing in the territory of the second 
Member State. 
(see para. 36 and operative part) 
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