4.

The questions referred by the Elengtiko Sinedrio meeting in plenary session are as follows: ‘(1) In view of the fact that, during the period of their career, the staff doctors of the IKA may, from time to time, be appointed to be in charge of and to direct the clinical services of the IKA, participate in the proceedings of its principal or secondary clinical committees and consequently, in the course of their duties, be required to take decisions relating to the objectives and functioning of the IKA, (a) may they on that ground be regarded as “civil servants” within the meaning of Article 4(4) of Regulation No 1408/71, that is to say, do they exercise public authority, and (b) is it sufficient in order for them to be regarded as “civil servants” that they are afforded the possibility of occupying such positions or must they have actually occupied them, even if only once during their career in the public service? (2) In so far as their pension situation is governed, irrespective of whether or not they have occupied such positions, by a pension scheme related principally to the pension provisions applicable to civil servants and military personnel, is that sufficient for the scheme in question to be regarded as a “special” scheme of social security benefits for civil servants within the meaning of Article 4(4) of Regulation No 1408/71, as it now applies? Thus, for a scheme of social security benefits to be regarded as “special”, is it sufficient that it concerns civil servants or refers to the existing social security scheme for civil servants of a Member State, or does the meaning of “special” perhaps require other elements or arrangements which in any event may not be less favourable than the basic principles contained in the abovementioned regulation and in Article 51 of the EEC Treaty which refers to the aggregation, for the purpose of acquiring and retaining the right to benefit and of calculating the amount of benefit, of all periods taken into account under the laws of the several countries? (3) Inasmuch as under Article 4(4) of Regulation No 1408/71 a “special” scheme of benefits for the “civil servants” of a Member State might be regarded as allowing arrangements which do not provide for, or do not permit, the aggregation of periods of employment completed by the civil servant under the legislation of another Member State for the purpose of acquiring and retaining the right to benefit and of calculating the amount thereof, does that provision of the abovementioned regulation run counter to the first paragraph of Article 51 of the EEC Treaty, in view of the fact that Article 48(4) concerning access to employment in the public service, which states that Article 48 “shall not apply to employment in the public service”, does not clearly appear to apply to the scheme of social security benefits in such a way as to cause a person subject to a special social security scheme for the civil servants of a Member State to lose the abovementioned right to aggregate, for the purpose of acquiring and retaining the right to benefit and of calculating the amount of benefit, earlier periods of employment completed in other Member States, where the national benefits scheme for civil servants does in fact permit such aggregation to the extent to which the aggregated earlier periods of employment were completed abroad in analogous public establishments?’