CELEX: C1996/197/22
Language: en
Date: 1996-07-06 00:00:00
Title: Reference for a preliminary ruling from the 11th Chamber of the Tribunal du Travail (Labour Court), Brussels, by a judgment of that court of 22 April 1996 in the case of Louis Wolfs v. Office National des Pensions (Case C-154/96)

No C 197/ 12           EN                  Official Journal of the European Communities                                              6 . 7. 96
Rijk, represented by Nicolas Lhoest, with an address for              1 . Is the introduction by a Member State of a flexible
service in Luxembourg at the offices of Fiduciaire Myson, 1                 retirement system in accordance with Council
rue Glesener .                                                              Recommendation 82/857/EEC of 10 December 1982 on
                                                                            the principle of a Community policy with regard to
The appellant claims that the Court should :
                                                                            retirement age (*) covered by the exclusion provided for
                                                                            in Article 7 ( 1 ) ( a ) of Council Directive 79/7/EEC of
                                                                            19 December 1978 on the progressive implementation
1 , declare the appeal admissible and well founded;                         of the principle of equal treatment for men and women
                                                                            in matters of social security ( 2 ), in the sense that the
2 , consequently:                                                           fixing of a flexible retirement age for men and women,
                                                                            for instance between the ages of 60 and 65 years, cannot
    ( a ) annul the judgment delivered;                                     be treated purely and simply in the same way as the
                                                                            setting of an age for terminating employment identical
    ( b ) itself determine the case and, adjudicating on his                for everyone and, even coupled with maintenance of a
          initial application:                                              different pension calculation for men and women, is not
                                                                            necessarily contrary to the principle of equal treatment
          — annul the decision of 18 January 1994 by which                  for men and women laid down in Article 4 ( 1 ) of
              the respondent decided to reimburse to the                    Directive 79/7/EEC, since under such a system all future
              appellant the sum of Bfrs 4 412 under the                     pensioners will have the option of freely determining
              supplementary sickness insurance scheme,                      when their pension will commence on the basis of their
                                                                            own work record; this will in particular be the case if the
          — in so far as may be necessary, annul the                        system thus introduced corresponds to a necessary aim
              respondent's decision of 15 July 1994 rejecting               of the State's social policy and is justified on grounds
              the appellant's complaint dated 18 April                      unrelated to discrimination on grounds of sex ?
               1994 ,
          — order the respondent to pay the full difference           2 . If the answer is in the negative, does the achievement
              between the expenditure actually incurred and                 of the objectives laid down by Directive 79/7/EEC
              the payments due under the joint sickness                     and Recommendation 82/857/EEC, namely the
              insurance scheme, amounting in the present                    introduction of a flexible retirement age for everyone
              case to Bfrs 4 950 ,                                          and equality for men and women in matters of social
                                                                            security, when account is also taken of the combination
          — declare that the general rules implementing                     of formal equality with substantive discrimination
              the first and second paragraphs of Article 24                 existing between men and women in connection with
              of the Staff Regulations are unlawful, and                    statutory retirement pensions, require a Member State
                                                                            in mechanical fashion to level the conditions of
              consequently annul them;
                                                                            entitlement to retirement pension downwards, by
                                                                            ensuring that men and women are entitled to take a
    (c ) order the respondent to pay all the costs of the
                                                                            retirement pension, as they choose, from the lowest age
          appeal and of the proceedings at first instance .
                                                                            and according to the method of calculation applied
                                                                            hitherto to the category which became entitled from that
The pleas in law and main arguments are the same as those                   age to a retirement pension, despite the consequences for
advanced in the application at first instance .                             the financial equilibrium of retirement systems which
                                                                            were not set up on the basis of those principles ?
(!) OJ No C 380 , 31 . 12 . 1994, p . 24 .
                                                                      3 . Further, in the event that the first question is answered in
                                                                            the negative, should the solution most favourable to the
                                                                            person concerned, with regard to Community law, be
                                                                            applied to the entire work record of the person
                                                                            concerned or may it be applied only to the years of work
Reference for a preliminary ruling from the 11th Chamber                    recorded subsequent either to entry into force of the
of the Tribunal du Travail ( Labour Court), Brussels, by a                  Law introducing a flexible age of retirement, or the
judgment of that court of 22 April 1996 in the case of Louis                date of the judgment given by the Court of Justice
            Wolfs v. Office National des Pensions                           of the European Communities on 1 July 1993 in
                                                                            Case C-l 54/92 Van Cant v . Office National des
                        ( Case C-154/96 )                                   Pensions ( 3 )?
                          ( 96/C 197/22 )
                                                                      f 1 ) OJ No L 357, 18 . 12 . 1982 , p . 27; EE 05 F3 , p . 39 .
Reference has been made to the Court of Justice of the                ( 2 ) OJ No L 26 , 10 . 1 . 1979 , p . 4; EE 05 F2 , p . 174 .
European Communities by a decision of the Tribunal du                 ( 3 ) OJ No C 204 , 28 . 7 . 1993 , p . 7.
Travail ( 11th Chamber ), Brussels, of 22 April 1996, which
was received at the Court Registry on 7 May 1996 , for a
preliminary ruling in the case of Louis Wolfs v. Office
National des Pensions on the following questions :