Malta referred to EU court for cutting public service pensions

The European Commission announced that it decided to refer Malta to the EU's Court of Justice "for reducing Maltese old-age pensions if the beneficiary receives a pension from another Member State as a result of having worked in the public service of that State."

It said that Maltese legislation provides that Maltese statutory old-age pensions are partly decreased by the sum of service pensions paid in Malta or abroad. "Such a practice breaches the social security coordination rules of the European Union."

"All pensions based on national legislation, such as civil or military service pensions, fall under the protection of the EU rules on social security coordination and those rules prohibit the application of national rules on suspension and reduction of these types of benefits," the Commission said.

"EU social security coordination rules (Regulation EC No 883/2004 and formerly Regulation (EEC) No 1408/71) give EU citizens the same rights and obligations as nationals of the country where they are covered."

"All pensions based on national legislation, such as civil or military service pensions, fall under the protection of these rules," the Commission insisted.

The Commission also said that it became aware of the infringement in Malta through several petitions submitted to the European Parliament.

The Commission said it requested Malta to take measures to stop cutting civil service pensions from other Member States (see IP/12/174), "but no such measures have been notified to the Commission."