Keywords
Summary

Keywords

Actions for failure to fulfil obligations - Proof of failure to fulfil obligations - Burden of proof on the Commission - Production of specific evidence indicative of failure - Absence

(EC Treaty, Art. 169 (now Art. 226 EC); Council Regulation No 1408/71, Art. 13(2)(f))

Summary

$$In proceedings under Article 169 of the Treaty (now Article 226 EC) for failure to fulfil an obligation, it is incumbent upon the Commission to prove the allegation that the obligation has not been fulfilled and to place before the Court the information needed to enable it to determine whether the obligation has not been fulfilled.

In that regard, by merely claiming, in its application, that a Member State failed to fulfil its obligations under Article 13(2)(f) of Regulation No 1408/71 on the application of social security schemes to employed persons, to self-employed persons and to members of their families moving within the Community by levying contributions on pensions paid in that State in respect of an occupational disease where the persons receiving such pensions do not reside in that Member State and are no longer subject to its social security scheme, the Commission infers from that provision legal consequences which do not necessarily flow from it. It considers it to be established that the conditions for applying that provision are fulfilled, although, in order to establish the merits of that proposition, it was required to prove that those conditions are in fact fulfilled in the present case, by specifying the concrete situations in which persons receiving pensions paid in that Member State in respect of an accident at work or an occupational disease are in fact no longer subject to the social security legislation of that Member State where they have their residence in the territory of another Member State.

( see paras 38-39 )