Keywords
Summary

Keywords

1. Preliminary rulings - Reference to the Court - Need for a preliminary ruling - To be determined by the national court

(EC Treaty, Art. 177 (now Article 234 EC))

2. Freedom of movement for persons - Workers - Equal treatment - Basis for calculating sickness insurance contributions levied by a Member State on supplementary retirement pensions payable under an agreement in another Member State - No account taken of contributions already deducted in that other Member State - Not permissible

(EC Treaty, Art. 48 (now, after amendment, Art. 39 EC))

Summary

1. It is solely for the national court before which the dispute has been brought, and which must assume responsibility for the subsequent judicial decision, to determine in the light of the particular circumstances of the case both the need for a preliminary ruling in order to enable it to deliver judgment and the relevance of the questions which it submits to the Court.

( see para. 20 )

2. Article 48 of the Treaty (now, after amendment, Article 39 EC) precludes a Member State from calculating the sickness insurance contributions of a retired worker subject to its legislation on the basis of the gross amount of the supplementary retirement pension payable under an agreement which that worker draws in another Member State, without taking account of the fact that a part of the gross amount of that pension has already been deducted by way of sickness insurance contributions in the latter Member State.

Even if such a system for calculating contributions applies to migrant and non-migrant workers in the same way, it is liable to prejudice only the former inasmuch as it is unlikely that sickness insurance contributions will be levied twice in a worker's State of origin on the gross amount of his supplementary retirement pension where he has been employed only in that Member State. By contrast, that risk is real for a worker who has been employed in another Member State where he draws a supplementary retirement pension. National legislation of that kind establishing such a system for calculating contributions therefore constitutes an obstacle to freedom of movement for workers.

( see paras 34-36 and operative part )