Directive 1998/49 - Safeguarding the supplementary pension rights of employed and self-employed persons moving within the EC - Main contents

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

L 209/46

Whereas one of the fundamental freedoms of the Community is the free movement of persons; whereas the Treaty provides that the Council shall, acting unanimously, adopt such measures in the field of social security as are necessary to provide freedom of movement of workers;

Whereas the social protection of workers is ensured by statutory social security schemes complemented by supplementary social security schemes;

Whereas the legislation already adopted by the Council with a view to protecting the social security rights of workers moving within the Community and of members of their family, namely Council Regulations (EEC) No 1408/71 of 14 June 1971 on the application of social security schemes to employed persons, to self-employed persons and to members of their families moving within the Community (4) and (EEC) No 574/72 of 21 March 1972 laying down the procedure for implementing Regulation (EEC) No 1408/71 on the application of social security schemes to employed persons, to self-employed persons and to members of their families moving within the Community (5), concern only statutory pension schemes; whereas the system of coordination provided for in those Regulations does not extend to supplementary pension schemes, except for schemes which are covered by the term ‘legislation’ as defined by the first subparagraph of Article l(j) of Regulation (EEC) No 1408/71 or in respect of which a Member State makes a declaration under that Article;

Whereas the Council has a wide discretion regarding the choice of the most appropriate measures for attaining the objective of Article 51 of the Treaty; and whereas the system of coordination provided for in Regulations (EEC) No 1408/71 and (EEC) No 574/72, and in particular the rules of aggregation, are not appropriate to supplementary pension schemes, except for schemes which are covered by the term ‘legislation’ as defined by the first subparagraph of Article l(j) of Regulation (EEC) No 1408/71 or in respect of which a Member State makes a declaration under that Article, and should therefore be subject to specific measures, of which this Directive is the first, in order to take account of their special nature and characteristics and the diversity of such schemes within and between Member States;

Whereas no pension or benefit should be subject to both the provisions of this Directive and those of Regulations (EEC) No 1408/71 and (EEC) No 574/72, and therefore any supplementary pension scheme which comes within the scope of those Regulations, because a Member State has made a declaration to that effect under Article l(j) of Regulation (EEC) No 1408/71, cannot be subject to the provisions of this Directive;

Whereas in its Recommendation 92/442/EEC of 27 July 1992 on the convergence of social protection objectives and policies (6) the Council recommended that Member States should ‘promote, where necessary, changes to the conditions governing the acquisition of pension and, especially, supplementary pension rights with a view to eliminating obstacles to the mobility of employed workers’;

Whereas a contribution to this objective can be made if workers who move or whose place of employment moves from one...