Keywords
Summary

Keywords

1 International agreements - Agreements concluded by the Community - Direct effect - Conditions - Decision No 3/80 of the Council of Association, set up under the EEC-Turkey Association Agreement, on social security for migrant workers - Principle of non-discrimination on grounds of nationality

(Decision No 3/80 of the EEC-Turkey Council of Association, Art. 3(1))

2 International agreements - EEC-Turkey Association Agreement - Social security for migrant workers - `Worker' - Meaning for the purposes of Decision No 3/80 of the Council of Association

(Decision No 3/80 of the EEC-Turkey Council of Association, Art. 1)

3 International agreements - EEC-Turkey Association Agreement - Social security for migrant workers - Family allowances - Entitlement subject to residence authorisation requirements not applied to own nationals - Discrimination on grounds of nationality - Not permissible

(Decision No 3/80 of the EEC-Turkey Association Agreement, Art. 3(1))

4 Preliminary rulings - Interpretation - Temporal effects of judgments ruling on interpretation - Retroactive effect - Limits - Legal certainty - Power of assessment of the Court

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

Summary

1 In common with provisions of agreements concluded by the Community with non-member countries, a provision adopted by an association council set up under an association agreement to implement the provisions thereof must be regarded as being directly applicable when, regard being had to its wording and the purpose and nature of the agreement itself, the provision contains a clear and precise obligation which is not subject, in its implementation or effects, to the adoption of any subsequent measure.

Those conditions are not satisfied by certain provisions of Decision No 3/80 of the EEC-Turkey Council of Association on the application of the social security schemes of the Member States to Turkish workers and members of their families, the implementation of which requires additional measures. The position is different, however, with respect to Article 3(1) of that Decision, which lays down the rule assimilating persons who are covered by the Decision and reside in the host Member State to nationals of that State, by prohibiting any discrimination based on nationality and resulting from the legislation of that Member State. Indeed, Article 3(1) of Decision No 3/80 establishes, in the area in which that decision applies, a precise and unconditional principle capable of being applied by a national court and, therefore, of governing the legal situation of individuals. The direct effect which must therefore be accorded to that provision means that the persons to whom it applies are entitled to rely on it before the courts of the Member States.

2 A person has the status of `worker' - within the meaning given in Article 1(b) of Decision No 3/80 of the EEC-Turkey Council of Association on the application of the social security schemes of the Member States to Turkish workers and members of their families - where he is covered, even if only in respect of a single risk, compulsorily or on an optional basis, by a general or special social security scheme referred to in that provision, irrespective of the existence of an employment relationship. That condition is satisfied where the person is covered by statutory pension insurance or by statutory insurance against accidents at work.

3 On a proper construction of Article 3(1) of Decision No 3/80 of the EEC-Turkey Council of Association on the application of the social security schemes of the Member States to Turkish workers and members of their families, a Member State may not require of a Turkish national covered by that Decision whom it has authorised to reside in its territory, but who holds in that host State only a conditional residence authorisation issued for a specified purpose and for a limited duration, that, in order to receive family allowances for his child who resides with him in that Member State, he must be in possession of a residence entitlement or a residence permit, whereas for that purpose nationals of that State are required only to be resident there.

First, the legislation of the host Member State cannot impose upon Turkish nationals covered by that Decision conditions additional to or more stringent than those applicable to its own nationals. Secondly, the requirement that a person possess a residence entitlement or a residence permit in order to qualify for family allowances is not applicable to nationals of the host State and thus by its nature covers aliens only. Its application therefore leads to unequal treatment on grounds of nationality.

4 The interpretation which, in the exercise of the jurisdiction conferred on it by Article 177 of the Treaty (now Article 234 EC), the Court gives to a rule of Community law clarifies and defines where necessary the meaning and scope of that rule as it must be or ought to have been understood and applied from the time of its entry into force. It follows that the rule so interpreted may, and must, be applied by the courts even to legal relationships which arose and were established before the judgment ruling on the request for interpretation, provided that in other respects the conditions for bringing a dispute relating to the application of that rule before the competent courts are satisfied.

It is only exceptionally that, in application of a general principle of legal certainty which is inherent in the Community legal order, the Court may decide to restrict the right of interested parties to rely upon a provision which it has interpreted, with a view to calling in question legal relations established in good faith. Such a restriction may be allowed only in the actual judgment ruling upon the interpretation sought.

Since this is the first time that the Court has been called on to rule on the direct effect of Article 3(1) of Decision No 3/80 of the EEC-Turkey Council of Association on the application of the social security schemes of the Member States to Turkish workers and members of their families - which lays down the principle of non-discrimination on grounds of nationality - and since the Court's earlier case-law on the direct effect of that Decision may well have created a situation of uncertainty as to the right of individuals to rely on that provision before the national courts, pressing considerations of legal certainty preclude any reopening of the question of legal relationships which have been definitively determined before the delivery of the judgment confirming that Article 3(1) has direct effect, where that would retroactively throw the financing of the social security systems of the Member States into confusion.

It must therefore be held that the direct effect of Article 3(1) of Decision No 3/80 may not be relied on in support of claims relating to benefits in respect of periods prior to the date of that judgment except as regards those persons who, before that date, initiated proceedings or made an equivalent claim.