Keywords
Summary

Keywords

Social policy — Men and women — Equal pay — National law preventing transsexuals who have undergone surgical gender reassignment from marrying — Not permissible — Right of their partners to nominate them as the beneficiary of a survivor ' s pension — To be determined by the national court — (Art. 141 EC)

Summary

Article 141 EC, in principle, precludes legislation which, in breach of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, prevents a heterosexual couple, where the sexual identity of one of the partners is the result of gender reassignment surgery, from fulfilling the marriage requirement which must be met for one of them to be able to benefit from part of the pay of the other. Since it is for the Member States to determine the conditions under which legal recognition is given to the change of gender of a person who has undergone surgical gender reassignment, it is for the national court to determine whether the partner of such a transsexual can rely on Article 141 EC in order to gain recognition of the right to nominate his or her transsexual partner as the beneficiary of a survivor ' s pension.

see paras 33-36, operative part