CELEX: E2007P0503(02)
Language: en
Date: 2007-02-16 00:00:00
Title: Action brought on 16 February 2007 by the EFTA Surveillance Authority against the Kingdom of Norway (Case E-2/07)

3.5.2007   
            
            
               EN
            
            
               Official Journal of the European Union
            
            
               C 99/15
            
         Action brought on 16 February 2007 by the EFTA Surveillance Authority against the Kingdom of Norway
   (Case E-2/07)
   (2007/C 99/15)
   An action against the Kingdom of Norway was brought before the EFTA Court on 16 February 2007 by the EFTA Surveillance Authority, represented by Niels Fenger, Arne T. Andersen and Lorna Young, acting as Agents of the EFTA Surveillance Authority, 35, Rue Belliard, B-1040 Brussels.
   The applicant requests the EFTA Court to declare that:
   
               1.
            
            
               
                  By maintaining in force rules in the Lov av 28. juli 1949 nr. 26 om Statens Pensjonskasse relating to pension rights accrued on the basis of periods of employment after 1 January 1994 pursuant to which the survivor's pension of a widower whose spouse became a member of the Public Service Pension Fund prior to 1 October 1976 is curtailed in relation to his other income whereas a widow in the same circumstances receives her survivor's pension without curtailment, the Kingdom of Norway has failed to fulfil its obligations under Article 69(1) EEA and Article 5 of the Act referred to at point 20 in Annex XVIII of the EEA Agreement (Council Directive 86/378/EEC of 24 July 1986 on the implementation of the principle of equal treatment for men and women in occupational social security schemes, as amended by Council Directive 96/97/EC of 20 December 1996), as adapted by Protocol 1 thereto,
               
               and
            
         
               2.
            
            
               
                  The Kingdom of Norway bear the costs of these proceedings
               
            
         Legal and factual background and pleas in law adduced in support:
   
               —
            
            
               The case concerns rules in the Norwegian Public Service Pension Act relating to the pension rights of widowers whose spouses became members of the Public Service Pension Fund prior to 1 October 1976, wherein:
               
                           —
                        
                        
                           Their survivors' pensions are curtailed in relation to their other income;
                        
                     
                           —
                        
                        
                           Widows in the same circumstances receive their survivors' pensions without curtailment.
                        
                     
         
               —
            
            
               Article 69(1) EEA provides that men and women shall receive equal pay for equal work.
            
         
               —
            
            
               Article 5 of the Act referred to at point 20 in Annex XVIII of the EEA Agreement (Council Directive 86/378/EEC of 24 July 1986) regulates the application of the principle of equal treatment to occupational social security schemes.