Case C‑361/13

European Commission

v

Slovak Republic

‛Failure of a Member State to fulfil obligations — Regulation (EC) No 883/2004 — Article 7 — Old-age benefit — Christmas bonus — Residence requirement’

Summary — Judgment of the Court (First Chamber), 16 September 2015

1. Judicial proceedings — Application initiating proceedings — Formal requirements — Identification of the subject-matter of the dispute — Brief summary of the pleas in law on which the application is based — Unambiguous wording of the form of order sought by the applicant

   (Rules of Procedure of the Court of Justice, Art. 120(c))

2. Actions for failure to fulfil obligations — Proof of failure — Burden of proof on Commission — Presumptions — Not permissible — Production of evidence showing failure

   (Art. 258 TFEU)

3. Social security — Migrant workers — EU legislation — Substantive scope — Benefits covered and benefits excluded — Distinguishing criteria

   (European Parliament and Council Regulation No 883/2004, Art. 3(1))

4. Social security — Migrant workers — EU legislation — Substantive scope — Old-age benefits — Grant of a Christmas bonus to the beneficiaries of several types of pension and not only to those with an old-age or retirement pension — Not sufficient to establish the constituent elements of an old-age benefit — Not included

   (European Parliament and Council Regulation No 883/2004, Art. 3(1)(d))

1.  See the text of the decision.

   (see para. 21)

2.  See the text of the decision.

   (see para. 44)

3.  The distinction between benefits excluded from the scope of Regulation No 883/2004 on the coordination of social security systems and those which fall within it is based not on whether a benefit is classified as a social security benefit by national legislation, but essentially on the constituent elements of each particular benefit, in particular its purpose and the conditions under which it is granted.

   A benefit may be regarded as a social security benefit in so far as it is granted, without any individual and discretionary assessment of personal needs, to recipients on the basis of a legally defined position and relates to one of the risks expressly listed in Article 3(1) of that regulation.

   (see paras 46, 47)

4.  The retirement benefits referred to in Article 3(1)(d) of Regulation No 883/2004 on the coordination of social security systems are characterised essentially by the fact that their purpose is to ensure means of subsistence for those persons who, on reaching a certain age, cease working and are under no obligation to make themselves available to the employment services.

   A Christmas bonus which is not paid exclusively to recipients of an old-age pension, an early old-age pension or a military and police retirement pension, but which is also paid to a group of beneficiaries that includes recipients of other types of pension, in particular, an invalidity pension, a social pension, a widow/widower’s pension or an orphan’s pension, and the purpose of which does not depend only on the type of pension it is intended to supplement cannot be classified as an old-age benefit within the meaning of that provision.

   That is the case, in particular, where the financial supplement, paid in the form of a Christmas bonus and the grant of which is not dependent on an individual and discretionary assessment of the claimant’s personal needs by the competent authorities, is intended to alleviate the difficult social situation of recipients on low incomes in a period during which they may personally experience the economic and social burden of their low income, which also derives from the fact that recipients of several legal pensions will receive only one Christmas bonus if the total amount of the pensions does not exceed the threshold laid down.

   (see para. 52, 55, 57, 60, 61)