Opinion of the Advocate General — ECLI:EU:C:1998:11
Date: 1998-01-15
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: Social Policy
Procedure: Reference for a preliminary ruling
Origin: Belgium

Summary of the Judgment 
Social policy — Equal treatment for men and women in matters of social security — Directive 
79/7 — Derogation allowed in respect of determining the statutory pensionable age — Scope — 
Limited to forms of discrimination necessarily and objectively linked to the difference in pension­
able age — Different method of calculating retirement pensions — Permissible 
(Council Directive 79/7, Art. 7(1)(a)) 
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SUMMARY — JOINED CASES C-377/96 TO C-384/96 
Article 7(1)(a) of Directive 79/7 on the pro­
gressive implementation of the principle of 
equal treatment for men and women in mat­
ters of social security must be interpreted as 
meaning that, if national legislation has 
maintained a different pensionable age for 
male and female workers, the Member State 
concerned is entitled to calculate the amount 
of pension differently depending on the 
worker's sex. 
The specification of the age for award of a 
retirement pension effectively determines the 
length of the period during which persons 
can contribute to the pension scheme. If a 
difference in pensionable age has been main­
tained, a question of fact which it is for the 
national court to decide, a form of discrimi­
nation in the method of calculating pensions 
is necessarily and objectively linked to that 
difference and thus comes under the deroga­
tion permitted by Article 7(1)(a). 
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