1.

These cases come before the Court by way of a preliminary ruling from the Cour du travail [Labour Court], Liège, and the Cour du travail [Labour Court], Mons, in connection with two disputes involving the Office national des pensions pour travailleurs salariés (ONPTS) [National Pension Office for Employed Persons, hereinafter referred to as ‘the Office’] on the one hand, and on the other Mr Romano (in Case 58/84) and Mr Ruzzu (in Case 117/84) respectively. Mr Romano — 31.3.1927 — 31.12.1940: worked as an employed person in Italy — 17.5.1941 — 13.5.1943: worked as an underground miner in Germany — 1.1.1944 — 30.6.1947: worked as an underground miner in Italy Entitlement to a reduced pension in each of those two countries — 13.10.1947 — 28.2.1959: worked as an underground miner in Belgium — 1.3.1959 — 31.12.1972: invalidity pension for underground miners awarded under the Belgian insurance scheme for occupational diseases; period in question assimilated to a period of actual employment — Retired on 1.1.1973 Employment record recognized in Belgium: 25 years — Pension awarded on 26.10.1979 by the Office as from. 1.4.1975 amounting to 25/30ths of the total entitlement to a Belgian pension, plus reduced pro rata German and Italian pensions Since the factual and legal circumstances in which Mr Romano and Mr Ruzzu find themselves are virtually identical, it is possible to submit a single opinion for both cases. Mr Romano and Mr Ruzzu, both of whom are of Italian origin, left their country in order to work as underground miners in Belgium, after being employed for periods of varying duration in Italy and then in Germany (in the case of Mr Romano) and in Italy alone (in the case of Mr Ruzzu). The comparative table set out below shows the similarity between the two cases: Mr Ruzzu — 1937 to 1952: worked as a farm labourer for a period of just over 5 years in Italy Entitlement to a reduced Italian pension — 3.11.1952 — 3.2.1969: worked as an underground miner in Belgium — 1.5.1969 — 31.10.1977: invalidity pension for underground miners awarded under the Belgian insurance scheme for occupational diseases; period in question assimilated to a period of actual employment — Retired on 1.11.1977 Employment record recognized in Belgium: 26 years — — Pension awarded on 6.2.1981 by the Office as from 1.11.1977 amounting to 26/30ths of the total entitlement to a Belgian pension, plus a reduced pro rata Italian pension The Belgian legislation applicable to Mr Romano and Mr Ruzzu concerning the acquisition and establishment of pension rights upon retirement was Article 10 (2) of Royal Decree No 50 of 24 October 1967 ( 1 ) which provides that a miner who ‘has not completed a total of 30 calendar years regularly and principally employed as an underground coalminer, but has completed at least 25 years, ... is required to establish that he was regularly and principally employed in that capacity for a number of extra calendar pay years equal to the difference between 30 and the number of calendar years in respect of which a regular and principal employment in that capacity is proved. Each of those extra years shall be taken into account as a year of employment as an underground miner before 1955’. The Law of 10 February 1981, which took effect retroactively from 1 January 1981, inserted in the first paragraph of Article 10 (2) of Royal Decree No 50 a new subparagraph which reads as follows : ‘However, those extra years shall be reduced by the number of years in respect of which the worker may claim a retirement pension or other benefit in lieu thereof, by virtue of another Belgian scheme except the scheme for self-employed persons, by virtue of a scheme in a foreign country or by virtue of a scheme applicable to the staff of an institution governed by public international law.’ ( 2 ) Before 1981, therefore, underground miners who had actually carried on their occupation in Belgium for at least 25 years received a kind of premium under Belgian law consisting of the grant of a maximum of five extra years of notional employment as compensation for doing work which damaged their health prematurely. After 25 years of employment miners were awarded a pension of 30/30ths, usually corresponding to 30 years of work in that occupation. However, even before the relevant legislation was amended in 1981, the Office awarded Mr Romano only 25/30ths of the total pension to which he was entitled on the ground that he had acquired entitlement to a reduced pension in other Member States, and it recognized only 26/30ths of a full employment record in the case of Mr Ruzzu on the ground that he had acquired entitlement to a reduced pension in Italy. Those decisions were based on an administrative practice which the Court had already been asked to review in ONPTS v Celestre. ( 3 ) Mr Romano and Mr Ruzzu contested those decisions before the competent national courts. The Office appealed against the judgments given by those courts.