Jürgen Webb-Sämann v Christopher Seagon.
Date: 2016-11-24
24


Although pension contributions are not expressly referred to in Article 8 of Directive 2008/94, they are closely connected with the rights conferring immediate or prospective entitlement to old-age benefits, which that provision seeks to protect. Those contributions are designed to finance the immediate entitlement of employees at the time of their retirement. In that regard, the Court has already held that the failure on the part of the employer to pay contributions could constitute a cause of underfunding of a supplementary occupational pension scheme, a situation which falls under Article 8 of that directive (see, to that effect, judgment of 25 April 2013, Hogan and Others, C‑398/11, EU:C:2013:272, paragraphs 37 to 40). It follows that both Article 3 and Article 8 of that directive are relevant in the event of a failure to pay pension contributions.
27


Article 8 of Directive 2008/94, for its part, has a more restricted material scope in so far as it seeks to protect the interest of employees in securing payment of their pension claims. Moreover, that article, unlike Articles 3 and 4 of that directive, does not provide expressly for Member States to have the power to limit the level of protection (judgment of 25 January 2007, Robins and Others, C‑278/05,EU:C:2007:56, paragraph 43). Finally, contrary to Article 3 of that directive, Article 8 thereof seeks to guarantee the protection of the long-term interests of employees, given that, as regards immediate or prospective entitlements, such interests extend, in principle, over the entire retirement period.
32


Therefore, that directive, which is intended to reconcile the interests of employees and the need for balanced economic and social development, aims to ensure, in the context of EU law, a minimum degree of protection for those employees in the event of the insolvency of their employer, without prejudice, in accordance with Article 11 thereof, to more favourable provisions which the Member States may apply or introduce. The level of protection required by that directive for each of the specific guarantees that it establishes must be determined having regard to the words used in the corresponding provision, interpreted, if need be, in the light of the above considerations (see, to that effect, judgment of 25 January 2007, Robins and Others, C‑278/05, EU:C:2007:56, paragraphs 39 to 41).
34


In that regard, the Court has already held that the Member States have considerable latitude in determining both the means and the level of protection of rights to old-age benefits under supplementary occupational pension schemes in the event of the insolvency of the employer, which precludes an obligation to guarantee in full (judgments of 25 January 2007, Robins and Others, C‑278/05, EU:C:2007:56, paragraphs 36 and 42 to 45, and of 25 April 2013, Hogan and Others, C‑398/11, EU:C:2013:272, paragraph 42).
35


Although the Member States thus enjoy a wide margin of appreciation when implementing Article 8 of Directive 2008/94, they are nonetheless obliged, in accordance with the objective pursued by that directive, to ensure a minimum degree of protection for employees as required by that provision. In that regard, the Court has already held that a correct transposition of Article 8 of that directive requires an employee to receive, in the event of the insolvency of his employer, at least half of the old-age benefits arising out of the accrued pension rights for which he has paid contributions under a supplementary occupational pension scheme (see, to that effect, judgments of 25 January 2007, Robins and Others, C‑278/05, EU:C:2007:56, paragraph 57, and of 25 April 2013, Hogan and Others, C‑398/11, EU:C:2013:272, paragraph 51), although that does not mean that, in other circumstances, the losses suffered could also, even if their percentage differs, be regarded as manifestly disproportionate in the light of the obligation to protect the interests of employees, referred to in Article 8 of that directive.