Hilmar Kulzer v Freistaat Bayern.
Date: 1998-03-05
24 The Court held in Case 182/78 Algemeen Ziekenfonds Drenthe-Plattenland v Pierik [1979] ECR 1977, at paragraph 4, that the term `worker' was general in its scope and covered any person, whether in gainful occupation or not, who qualified as a person insured under the social security legislation of one or more Member States.  It followed that, even if they were not in gainful occupation, pensioners entitled to draw pensions under the legislation of one or more Member States came within the provisions of the Regulation concerning `workers' by virtue of their insurance under a social security scheme, unless they were subject to special provisions.
25 Article 2(3) provides that the Regulation is also to apply to civil servants where they are or have been subject to the legislation of a Member State to which the Regulation applies.  Under the scheme of the Treaty, civil servants are regarded as employed persons (see Case C-71/93 Van Poucke v Rijksinstituut voor de Sociale Verzekeringen der Zelfstandigen [1994] ECR I-1101, paragraph 17).
26 For the same reasons which led the Court to hold in Algemeen Ziekenfonds Drenthe-Plattenland v Pierik that the term `worker' also covered retired workers, the term `civil servant', which appears in a provision of general scope defining the persons falling within the Regulation, must be construed as covering retired civil servants who no longer pursue a professional or trade activity where they are, or have been, subject to the legislation of a Member State to which the Regulation applies.
28 Furthermore, according to Article 1(a) of the Regulation the terms `employed person' and `self-employed person' refer to `any person', without qualification, who is insured under one of the social security schemes referred to in that article for the contingencies and on the conditions mentioned in that provision (see, to that effect, Case C-2/89 Bestuur van de Sociale Verzekeringsbank v Kits van Heijningen [1990] ECR I-1755, paragraph 9). Likewise, under Article 2(1) and (3) the Regulation applies to employed or self-employed persons and to civil servants who are or have been subject to the legislation of one Member State only.
30 Finally, according to the fifth recital in the preamble to Regulation No 1408/71 in its original form, the provisions which the Regulation lays down for coordination of national social security legislation also apply to circumstances where members of the worker's family move within the Community.
35 The term `employed person', which appears in Article 73 of the Regulation, is defined in Article 1(a).  However, that definition is displaced by the definition in Point I.C of Annex I to the Regulation when the competent institution for granting family benefits is, in accordance with Chapter 7 of Title III of the Regulation, a German institution.
36 It appears from the actual wording of that annex, to which Article 1(a)(ii) of the Regulation refers, that only workers compulsorily insured under one of the schemes mentioned therein are entitled to German family allowances in accordance with Chapter 7 of Title III of the Regulation (Case C-266/95 Merino García v Bundesanstalt für Arbeit [1997] ECR I-3279, paragraph 24).