WRITTEN QUESTION E-2806/03 by Erik Meijer (GUE/NGL) to the Commission. Elimination of obstacles to claiming pension entitlements where workers have in the past worked in another Member State.
Date: 2003-09-19
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: EU Member State, EU national, EU publication, dissemination of information, labour law, migrant worker, pension scheme, residence, social security

C 58 E/204

Official Journal of the European Union

EN

6.3.2004

Answer given by Mr Byrne on behalf of the Commission

(22 October 2003)

With reference to the question raised by the Honourable Member, the Commission would like to refer to
its proposal for a Council Directive on Community measures for the control of foot-and-mouth disease,
which was adopted on 13 December 2002 (1).

After intensive discussions on this document in Council working groups, taking into account the opinions
of the Parliament, the Committee of the Regions and the European Economic and Social Committee and
following the political agreement by the Agricultural Council of 12 June 2003 in Luxembourg, the
Directive was formally adopted by the Council in September 2003 (2).

The new Directive confers more responsibility on Member States to choose the most efficient strategy for
the control of an outbreak, including scenarios for emergency vaccination.

In March 2003 the United Kingdom published its revised contingency plan for foot-and-mouth disease.
The plan, still based on Directive 85/511/EEC (3), is considered an operational document and provides a
framework for an emergency response to a foot-and-mouth disease outbreak. It aims at a proportionate
response to any future outbreak,
including the use of emergency vaccination and better controls on
compliance with animal welfare legislation.

(1) COM(2002) 736 final.
(2) http://register.consilium.eu.int/pdf/en/03/st12/st12430-ad01en03.pdf
(3) Council Directive 85/511/EEC of 18 November 1985 introducing Community measures for the control of foot-and-

mouth disease, OJ L 315, 26.11.1985.

(2004/C 58 E/220)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2806/03

by Erik Meijer (GUE/NGL) to the Commission

(19 September 2003)

Subject: Elimination of obstacles to claiming pension entitlements where workers have in the past worked

in another Member State

1.
Does the Commission recall that in the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s, many residents of Spain, Portugal, Italy
and Greece worked in Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and other north-western States
which at the time were more affluent and were short of manpower for dirty, dangerous and unpleasant
work, and that after a number of years many of them returned to their countries of origin?

2.
Is the Commission aware that, while temporarily working abroad, many of these people accumulated
entitlements to a universal State pension, e.g. 2 % per annum of a full pension in the Netherlands, and also
entitlements to occupational pensions, and that in many cases they did not commute their entitlements for
a lump-sum payment upon returning to their countries of origin, so that they are entitled to payment of
these pensions upon reaching the age of 65 or whatever the applicable age may be?

3.
How many people per Member State are now entitled to payment of a partial State pension or
occupational pension but have not yet claimed it because they are not aware of their rights or of the
formalities which have to be completed in order to obtain payment?

4.
Does the Commission agree that it is unacceptable that in practice people in the EU cannot obtain
payment of the pensions to which they are entitled because their entitlements accrued in a different
Member State to that of their nationality and that where they currently reside and because they lack
information about the extent of their entitlements and how they can claim them?

5. What will the Commission do to improve both information about accumulated pension entitlements
and ways of claiming them quickly and easily, so that in future all pension entitlements can be claimed?

6.3.2004

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 58 E/205

Answer given by Mrs Diamantopoulou on behalf of the Commission

(21 October 2003)

The Commission would like to inform the Honourable Member that
there are two regulations at
Community level, Regulations (EEC) No 1408/71 (1) and 574/72 (2), which coordinate the Member States’
various statutory social security systems and aim to provide social protection for those moving within the
European Union.

Claims for retirement pensions must, in principle, be submitted in the state of residence (Articles 36 to 38
of Regulation (EEC) No 574/72). The institution of the place of residence will investigate the claim, unless
the insured has not completed any insurance periods in the state of residence, in which case the institution
of the place of residence forwards the claim to the institution of the Member State to whose legislation the
claimant was last subject (Article 36, paragraphs 1 and 2, of Regulation (EEC) No 574/72). The institution
which is to investigate the pension claim (referred to as the investigating institution) will use form E-202
to inform the relevant institutions in the other Member States concerned of the claim for a retirement
pension (Article 41 of Regulation (EEC) No 574/72).

The Commission has published two guides to Community provisions on statutory social security schemes.
The first explains European citizens’ social security entitlements when they move within the European
Union. The second guide gives a general description of the statutory social security schemes in all Member
States and in Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein, and also contains the addresses of these countries’ social
security institutions. Paper versions of these brochures are available from the Commission and electronic
versions are available on the Web (http://europa.eu.int/comm/employment_social/soc-prot/schemes/
index_en.htm).

In addition, on 11 December 2002 the Commission adopted a Communication (3) entitled ‘Free movement
of workers: achieving the full benefits and potential’, which describes in practical terms the problems
which migrant workers may encounter and how the Commission addresses these problems. This
Communication is also available in electronic format on the Web (http://europa.eu.int/comm/employ-
ment_social/news/2002/dec/com2002_694_en.html).

As the coordination system provided for in the above Regulations relates only to statutory pension
schemes, the Council adopted a directive (4) on 29 June 1998 which is intended to safeguard the rights of
members of supplementary pension schemes who move from one Member State to another. This Directive
obliges Member States to take the necessary measures to ensure that employers, trustees or others
responsible for the management of supplementary pension schemes provide adequate information to
scheme members, when they move to another Member State, as to their pension rights and the choices
which are available to them under the scheme (Article 7). The Commission will submit a report evaluating
the application of this Directive to the European Parliament, the Council and the Economic and Social
Committee in 2004 (Article 10(3)).

(1) 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, OJ L 149, 5.7.1971.

(2) Regulation (EEC) No 574/72 of the Council of 21 March 1972 fixing the procedure for implementing Regulation
(EEC) No 1408/71 on the application of social security schemes to employed persons and their families moving
within the Community, OJ L 74, 27.3.1971.

(3) COM(2002) 694 final.
(4) Council Directive 98/49/EC on safeguarding the supplementary pension rights of employed and self-employed

persons moving within the Community, OJ L 209, 25.7.1998.

(2004/C 58 E/221)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2821/03

by Geoffrey Van Orden (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(19 September 2003)

Subject: Electric powered bicycles

Does the Commission have any plans to initiate regulations on electric powered bicycles, specifically with
regard to whether such bicycles can continue to use twist grip controls to operate the power or whether
they must be pedalled at all times?