Keywords
Summary

Keywords

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Social security for migrant workers - Equal treatment - National provision limiting overlapping of an old-age pension and an accident pension - Implementing rules having the effect of discriminating against workers who have been employed in more than one Member State - Not acceptable - Justification on grounds of practical difficulty - None

(EEC Treaty, Arts 7 and 48 to 51; Council Regulation No 1408/71, Art. 3(1) )

Summary

Articles 48 to 51 of the Treaty and the legislation adopted in implementation thereof, which includes Article 3 of Regulation No 1408/71, prevent a worker from losing, as a consequence of the exercise of his right to freedom of movement, the advantages in the field of social security guaranteed to him by the laws of a single Member State, since such a consequence could deter workers from exercising that right and would therefore constitute an obstacle to that freedom. Those provisions must therefore be interpreted as meaning that a migrant worker who is receiving an old-age pension under the legislation of one Member State and accident insurance benefits paid by an insurance institution of another Member State may not be put in a worse position, for the purpose of calculating the portion of the benefit to be suspended pursuant to the legislation of the first State, than a worker who has not exercised his right of free movement and is receiving both benefits under the legislation of a single Member State. No justification for such inequality of treatment can be afforded by any practical difficulties which social security institutions may encounter when calculating entitlement to benefits.