Keywords
Summary

Keywords

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Social security for migrant workers - Invalidity insurance - Special procedures for applying German legislation - Consideration of qualifications in determining entitlement to benefits - Community provision authorizing the refusal to take account of a qualification obtained in another Member State - Covert discrimination on grounds of nationality - Void

( EEC Treaty, Arts 48 and 51; Council Regulation No 1408/71, as amended, Annex VI, Part C, Point 15 )

Summary

Point 15 of Section C in Annex VI to Regulation No 1408/71 is invalid in so far as it provides, in regard to entitlement to a pension in respect of occupational invalidity or incapacity for work, or a miner' s pension in respect of a reduction in his capacity to work as a miner, or a miner' s pension in respect of occupational invalidity or incapacity for work, that, where under German legislation account must be taken of the occupation hitherto pursued by the person concerned, that entitlement is to be determined by taking account only of activities subject to compulsory insurance under German legislation .

Although that provision applies regardless of the nationality of the worker concerned, it works, when combined with the provisions of the German legislation, to the disadvantage of migrant workers coming from Member States other than Germany who have been employed successively in those States and in the Federal Republic of Germany because it prevents them from obtaining recognition, for the purposes of entitlement to a pension, of a qualification obtained in another Member State which is higher than that which they have in the Federal Republic of Germany . Since it is not of such a nature as to guarantee the equal treatment required by Article 48 of the Treaty, such a provision has no place in the coordination of national laws provided for in Article 51 of the Treaty in order to promote freedom of movement for workers in the Community .