In Case E-3/23, A v the Labour and Welfare Directorate (Arbeids- og velferdsdirektoratet) – REQUEST to the Court under Article 34 of the Agreement between the EFTA States on the Establishment of a Surveillance Authority and a Court of Justice by the National Insurance Court (Trygderetten), concerning the interpretation of Article 58 of Regulation (EC) No 883/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 April 2004 on the coordination of social security systems, the Court, composed of Páll Hreinsson, President, Bernd Hammermann (Judge-Rapporteur) and Michael Reiertsen, Judges, gave judgment on 18 April 2024, the operative part of which is as follows:

There is a minimum benefit within the meaning of Article 58 of Regulation (EC) No 883/2004 where the national legislation of an EEA State includes a specific guarantee the object of which is to ensure for recipients of social security benefits a minimum income which is in excess of the amount of benefit which they may claim solely on the basis of their periods of insurance and their contributions. To the extent that national legislation provides for such a specific guarantee it is without significance for the qualification as a minimum benefit within the meaning of Article 58 of the Regulation that the benefit may be proportionally reduced when the insured person has a shorter period of insurance than the full period of insurance, which under national law is 40 years.