Elissavet Paraschi v Landesversicherungsanstalt Württemberg.
Date: 1991-10-04
15 The Court has consistently held that Article 51 of the EEC Treaty and Regulation No 1408/71 provide only for the aggregation of insurance periods completed in different Member States and do not regulate the conditions under which those insurance periods are constituted (Case 29/88 Schmitt v Bundesversicherungsanstalt fuer Angestellte [1989] ECR 581); the conditions governing the right or obligation to become a member of a social security scheme are a matter to be determined by the legislation of each Member State, provided always that there is no discrimination in that connection between the nationals of the host State and those of other Member States (judgment in Case 110/79 Coonan v Insurance Officer [1980] ECR 1445).
22 It must then be pointed out that although, as the Court has held, Article 51 of the Treaty leaves in being differences between the social security systems of the Member States and hence in the rights of the people working there (Case C-227/89 Roenfeldt [1991] ECR I-323), it is also settled that the aim of Articles 48 to 51 would not be attained if, as a consequence of the exercise of their right to freedom of movement, workers were to lose the advantages in the field of social security guaranteed to them by the laws of a single Member State; such a consequence might discourage Community workers from exercising their right to freedom of movement and would therefore constitute an obstacle to that freedom (see most recently the judgment in Case C-10/90 Masgio [1991] ECR I-1119, paragraph 18).
23 It is apparent from the judgment in Case 1/78 Kenny v Insurance Officer [1978] ECR 1489, paragraph 17, that that consequence may arise if the national legislature defines the conditions for the acquisition or retention of the right to benefits in such a way that they can in fact be fulfilled only by nationals of the Member State concerned or if it defines the conditions for loss or suspension of the right in such a way that they can in fact be more easily satisfied by nationals of other Member States than by those of the State of the competent institution.
24 Such a situation arises in the case of legislation of the kind at issue in the main proceedings. Even if it applies, formally, to every Community worker and can thus lead to a prolongation of his reference period, nevertheless, in so far as it makes no provision for any possibility of prolongation where events or circumstances corresponding to those which enable the period to be prolonged occur in another Member State, it is liable to have a much greater adverse effect on migrant workers since they above all, particularly in case of sickness or unemployment, tend to return to their countries of origin.
27 In view of the foregoing considerations, it must be stated in reply to the first question that Articles 48(2) and 51 of the EEC Treaty must be interpreted as not precluding national legislation which makes the conditions for the grant of an invalidity pension stricter so that in future such a pension will be payable only if the insured person exercised an activity subject to compulsory insurance and paid at least 36 monthly contributions during the 60 months preceding the occurrence of the invalidity (reference period). However, those articles preclude such legislation where it permits the reference period to be prolonged, subject to certain conditions, but does not provide for the possibility of a prolongation where events or circumstances corresponding to the events or circumstances which would enable a prolongation to be granted occur in another Member State.
The second question