WRITTEN QUESTION E-2234/03 by Bartho Pronk (PPE-DE) to the Commission. Application for an old-age pension made from Greece.
Date: 2003-07-07
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: Greece, Netherlands, administrative formalities, free movement of workers, pension scheme, social security, social-security harmonisation

C 33 E/238

Official Journal of the European Union

EN

6.2.2004

Answer given by Mrs Diamantopoulou on behalf of the Commission

(12 August 2003)

The Honourable Member asks about problems connected with Dutch rules on pensions for frontier
workers.

It is not clear to the Commission whether the pensions to which the Honourable Member refers are those
provided by the social security system or are supplementary/private pensions.

In the field of social security pensions, Regulation (EC) No 1408/71 (1) sets out a system of co-ordination
of social security systems for people who move between the Member States, so that they will not be
disadvantaged because they have exercised their right to free movement. The social security contributions a
person has paid in one Member State are not transferred to his or her social security contributions in
another Member State. Rather, the Regulation provides that a person will receive an old age pension from
each of the Member States where he or she has been insured for more than 12 months.

The Commission considers that the Community rules on the co-ordination of social security systems
adequately protect people who move between the Member States. However, to improve this protection
further, the Commission proposed a modernisation and simplification of Regulation (EEC) No 1408/71 in
1998, and it is hoped that this proposal will be adopted by the end of 2003.

Turning to supplementary pensions, the Commission is very much aware of the problems the present lack
of ‘portability’ can create in the field of free movement of workers, a fundamental right under the Treaty.
In this respect it should be recalled, that Council Directive 98/49/EC of 29 June 1998 safeguards the
supplementary pension rights of employed and self-employed persons moving within the Community (2)
only in certain circumstances and under certain conditions. The Commission is currently consulting the
social partners on whether it would be appropriate to follow up this Directive with a second instrument
aimed at the portability of supplementary pensions. Before considering what further action is appropriate
and necessary, the Commission will await the outcome of this consultation.

In addition, contributors to supplementary or private pensions may encounter tax obstacles where their
pension schemes are administered by an organisation in a Member State other than that in which they
reside. The Commission issued a communication on these problems in 2001 (3). It is currently examining
the compatibility with Community law of rules applied by a number of Member States.

(1) Last consolidated version: Council Regulation (EC) No 118/97 of 2 December 1996 amending and updating
Regulation (EEC) No 1408/71 on the application of social security schemes to employed persons, to self-employed
persons and to members of their families moving within the Community and Regulation (EEC) No 574/72 laying
down the procedure for implementing Regulation (EEC) No 1408/71 (cid:1) OJ L 28, 30.1.1997.

(2) OJ L 209, 25.7.1998.
(3) COM(2001) 214 final of 19.4.2001.

(2004/C 33 E/244)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2234/03

by Bartho Pronk (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(7 July 2003)

Subject: Application for an old-age pension made from Greece

Regulation (EEC) No 1408/71 (1) stipulates that applications for statutory pensions must be submitted to
the social
In other words, a person who has
accumulated old-age pension rights in the Netherlands, but who, when reaching the age of 65, is resident
in Greece, must submit his or her application for a Netherlands pension to the Greek social insurance

insurance agency of the Member State of residence.

6.2.2004

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 33 E/239

agency, IKA. However, the application procedure via the IKA is lengthy (cid:1) two-year waiting periods are
common. Any entitlement to a Greek old-age pension has no bearing on the level of the pension to be
awarded in the Netherlands.

Does the Commission share my view that the procedure outlined above is unnecessarily cumbersome

1.
and time-consuming and thus poses a threat to the financial security of retired persons?

In procedural terms, would it not be better if the application for an old-age pension could be
2.
submitted directly to the Netherlands social insurance agency, SVB? If so, why is this not possible? If not,
what are the arguments against such a procedure?

3.

To what extent does the Commission see this as a restriction on the free movement of workers?

(1) OJ L 149, 5.7.1971, p. 2.

Answer given by Mrs Diamantopoulou on behalf of the Commission

(12 August 2003)

The Commission would inform the Honourable Member that Community social security regulations,
namely Regulation (EEC) No 1408/71 of the Council of 14 June 1971 on the application of social security
schemes to employed persons and their families moving within the Community (1), and Regulation (EEC)
No 574/72 of the Council of 21 March 1972 fixing the procedure for implementing Regulation (EEC)
No 1408/71 (2), do not envisage the harmonisation of Member States’ social security systems but merely
the coordination of the Member States’ national systems in order to enable European citizens to enable
European citizens to fully exercise their right to move freely between Member States. The Member States
thus remain free to organise their social security systems. However, Community regulations have laid
down a series of rules and principles that Member States must respect when exercising their own powers.
Regulation (EEC) No 574/72 states that applications for a pension must be submitted to the competent
institution of the State of residence. If an applicant has worked and was insured in two or more Member
States the competent institution of the place of stay will then forward the application to the competent
institution of each Member State in which the applicant was insured. The objective of this procedure is to
prevent migrant workers from having to make a separate application for a pension in each Member State
where they have worked, and to enable the institution of the place of stay to coordinate the processing of
the dossier by all of the institutions involved. However, if the applicant has never worked in the Member
State in which he resides, he can apply to the institution of the Member State where he was last insured.

Pension applications from migrant workers must be processed by the competent institutions within a
reasonable period of time so that those involved can enjoy the benefits to which they are entitled. In this
context, Article 50 of Regulation (EEC) No 574/72 provides for a series of measures to speed up processing
of pension applications by the competent institutions and the transmission of applications between
institutions of several Member States. Decision No 118 of the Administrative Commission on Social
Security for Migrant Workers (3) specifies the conditions of application of this article. Among other
provisions, this enables a pension application to be made one year before the person involved reaches
pensionable age, so that a complete dossier can be compiled as soon as possible. Furthermore, the
Administrative Commission is currently examining a proposal for a decision intended to modernise and
simplify the cooperation procedures of the competent institutions of the Member States in order to
improve and speed up the processing of pension applications.

(1) Regulation updated by Council Regulation (EC) No 118/97 of 2 December 1997, OJ L 28, 30.1.1997, and last
amended by Regulation (EC) No 1386/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 5 June 2001,
OJ L 187, 10.7.2001.

(2) OJ L 74, 27.3.1971. Regulation updated by Council Regulation (EC) No 1290/97 of 27 June 1997, OJ L 176,
4.7.1997 and last amended by Regulation (EC) No 1386/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council of
5 June 2001, OJ L 187, 10.7.2001.

(3) OJ C 306, 12.11.1983.