Keywords

Summary



Keywords

1 Court of Auditors - System of payment for its members - Pensions - Regulation No 840/95 amending the system - No effect on pensions acquired by the time of its entry into force - Meaning of `pensions acquired'

(Council Regulations No 2290/77, Art. 9, and No 840/95, Art. 2)

2 Court of Auditors - System of payment for its members - Pensions - Increase in pension rates in the event of an increase in the basic salary - Council's power of decision - Scope - Obligation to give reasons for the decision adopted - Extent

(Council Regulation No 2290/77, Art. 18)

3 Court of Auditors - System of payment for its members - Pensions - Regulation No 840/95 amending the system - Difference in the pension calculation according to whether the member ceased to hold office before or after the regulation entered into force - Principle of equal treatment - Infringement

(Council Regulations Nos 2290/77 and 840/95)

Summary

1 Under Article 2 of Regulation No 840/95, which amends Regulation No 2290/77 relating to the emoluments of the members of the Court of Auditors, pensions acquired on the date of entry into force of Regulation No 840/95 are not altered by it. With regard to the term `pensions acquired', the effect of the wording of Regulation No 2290/77, in particular Article 9(1) and (2) thereof, is that entitlement to a pension arises, and the pension is therefore acquired, on the day when the member of the Court of Auditors ceases to hold office, irrespective of the day, whether later or concomitant, from which he begins to enjoy that entitlement.

2 Article 18 of Regulation No 2290/77 relating to the emoluments of the members of the Court of Auditors provides that, should the Council decide to increase the basic salary, it is at the same time to decide on an appropriate increase in the rates of existing pensions. It follows from that wording, first, that the Council is obliged merely to examine whether such an increase is desirable, and is not under a general obligation to make an increase. Secondly, when the Council considers the desirability of an increase it must proceed in a particular direction so that, normally, the appropriate increase in the rates of acquired pensions will be the same as the increase in the basic salary.

While the Council is not required to specify why a decision to increase the rates of acquired pensions is appropriate when that increase is the same as the increase in the basic salary, that is not so in the exceptional cases where the increase in the rates of acquired pensions is much smaller than the increase in the basic salary, and even less so in the entirely exceptional case where the Council considers that it is appropriate not to increase the rates of acquired pensions at all.

3 Regulation No 840/95, which amends Regulation No 2290/77 relating to the emoluments of the members of the Court of Auditors in order to take account of the fact that the latter became a Community institution on 1 November 1993, infringes the principle of equal treatment in that it introduces a difference in the pension arrangements for former members all of whom ceased to hold office after that date, depending on whether they ceased to hold office, and therefore acquired their pension entitlement, before or after the regulation was first applied on 1 May 1995. Those members are, in the light of the statement of reasons referred to above, in a comparable position, but are treated differently without objective justification.