Ioannis Vougioukas v Idryma Koinonikon Asfalisseon (IKA).
Date: 1995-11-22
15 As regards old-age pensions in particular, Article 45 provides that, for the acquisition, retention or recovery of the right to benefits, periods completed under the legislation of other Member States are to be taken into account, while Article 46 provides that, with respect to the payment of benefits, the competent institution is to establish the actual amount of the benefit in the ratio which the length of the periods of insurance completed under the legislation administered by it bears to the total length of the periods of insurance completed under the legislations of all the Member States concerned.
Question 1
19 It should be observed in that regard that the subject-matter of the two provisions is different. Article 48(4) of the Treaty provides only that Member States may exclude nationals of other Member States from access to certain posts in the public service (see Joined Cases 389/87 and 390/87 Echternach and Moritz v Minister for Education and Science [1989] ECR 723, paragraph 14), whereas Article 4(4) of Regulation No 1408/71 excludes, in general terms, special schemes for civil servants and persons treated as such from the coordination of social security schemes under that regulation.
20 The objectives of the two provisions are also different. Article 48(4) of the Treaty takes account of the legitimate interest which Member States have in reserving to their own nationals a range of posts connected with the exercise of powers conferred by public law and with the protection of general interests (see Case 149/79 Commission v Belgium [1980] ECR 3881, paragraph 19), whereas Article 4(4) of Regulation No 1408/71 is intended to take account of the special features of schemes for civil servants in the Member States.
30 It should be observed that, in order to safeguard the effective exercise of the right to freedom of movement enshrined in Article 48 of the Treaty, the Council is required, under Article 51 thereof, to set up a system to enable workers to overcome obstacles with which they might be confronted in national social security rules. In principle, the Council carried out that duty by introducing Regulation No 1408/71 (see Case 368/87 Hartmann Troiani v Landesversicherungsanstalt Rheinprovinz [1989] ECR 1333, paragraph 20).
36 That said, the validity as circumscribed above of Article 4(4) does not entail that a request for aggregation is to be refused when it may be satisfied, in direct application of Articles 48 to 51 of the Treaty, without recourse to the coordination rules adopted by the Council.
38 It should be observed that the fact that the appellant in the main proceedings is a Greek national has no bearing on the application of the principle of freedom of movement for workers laid down by Article 48 of the Treaty. Any Community national, irrespective of his place of residence and his nationality, who has exercised the right to freedom of movement for workers and has been employed in another Member State falls within the scope of that provision (see Case C-419/92 Scholz v Opera Universitaria di Cagliari [1994] ECR I-505, paragraph 9).
39 According to settled case-law, the provisions of the Treaty relating to freedom of movement for persons are intended to facilitate the pursuit by Community nationals of occupational activities of all kinds throughout the Community and preclude national legislation which might place Community nationals at a disadvantage when they wish to extend their activities beyond the territory of a single Member State (see Case 143/87 Stanton v INASTI [1988] ECR 3877, paragraph 13). The objective of Articles 48 to 51 of the Treaty would not be attained if, as a result of exercising their right to freedom of movement, workers were to lose social security advantages granted to them by the legislation of a Member State: that might dissuade Community workers from exercising their right to freedom of movement and would therefore constitute an obstacle to that freedom (see Case C-12/93 Drake v Bestuur van de Nieuwe Algemene Bedrijfsvereniging [1994] ECR I-4337, paragraph 22).