Case C‑283/21
VA
v
Deutsche Rentenversicherung Bund
(Request for a preliminary ruling
from the Landessozialgericht Nordrhein-Westfalen)
Judgment of the Court (Second Chamber) of 22 February 2024
(Reference for a preliminary ruling – Social security for migrant workers – Regulation (EC) No 987/2009 – Article 44(2) – Scope – Pension for total incapacity for work – Calculation – Taking into account of child-raising periods completed in another Member State – Applicability – Article 21 TFEU – Free movement of citizens – Sufficient link between those child-raising periods and the periods of insurance completed in the Member State responsible for payment of the pension)
1. Questions referred for a preliminary ruling – Admissibility – Limits – Question concerning the interpretation of Article 44 of Regulation No 987/2009 – Provision not applicable to the dispute in the main proceedings – Interpretation sought not necessary for the resolution of that dispute – Inadmissibility
(Art. 267 TFEU; European Parliament and Council Regulations No 883/2004, Art. 87(3) and No 987/2009, Arts 44(2) and 93)
(see paragraphs 33, 36-38)
2. Citizenship of the Union – Right to move and reside freely within the territory of the Member States – Pension for total incapacity for work – Obligation to take into account, for the purposes of the grant of such pension, the periods devoted to child raising completed in another Member State – Person who has exclusively completed periods of insurance in the Member State responsible for payment of the pension – No payment of contributions in that Member State before or immediately after those child-raising periods – No effect on the obligation to take those periods into account
(Art. 21 TFEU; European Parliament and Council Regulation No 883/2004, Art. 1(t))
(see paragraphs 46-49, 52-55, operative part)
Résumé
In response to a request for a preliminary ruling from the Landessozialgericht Nordrhein-Westfalen (Higher Social Court, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany), the Court of Justice provides clarifications regarding the interpretation of Article 21 TFEU in a dispute in the main proceedings concerning the failure, by the pension insurance fund, to take into account, for the purposes of calculating the amount of the pension for total incapacity for work, the child-raising periods completed by the beneficiary of that pension in another Member State.
VA is a German national who, from 1962 to 2010, lived in the Netherlands, near the German border.
After taking a vocational training course in Germany, completed in July 1980, she did not pursue an occupational activity in Germany or the Netherlands.
Between 15 November 1986 and 31 March 1999, VA completed child-raising periods in the Netherlands without pursuing an occupational activity (‘the periods at issue’). At that time, she had not paid contributions to the German statutory pension insurance scheme.
Between April 1999 and October 2012, she was employed in Germany in a job not subject to compulsory insurance. From October 2012, she was gainfully employed in Germany, where she had moved in 2010, and, in that context, paid contributions to the German statutory pension insurance scheme.
Since March 2018, VA has received a pension for total incapacity for work from the Deutsche Rentenversicherung Bund (Federal Pension Insurance Fund, Germany). For the purposes of calculating the amount of that pension, that fund took into account, in addition to the periods during which VA had contributed to the German statutory pension insurance scheme, the periods during which she had completed vocational training and a period of employment of two months in 1999. However, it refused to take into account the periods at issue.
VA brought proceedings before the courts challenging that refusal. Following the dismissal of her action at first instance, she brought an appeal before the referring court.
In that context, the referring court decided to stay the proceedings and to refer questions to the Court of Justice for a preliminary ruling seeking to ascertain, in essence, whether, in a situation where the beneficiary of the pension does not satisfy the condition of pursuing an activity as an employed or self-employed person imposed by Article 44(2) of Regulation No 987/2009, (1) Article 21 TFEU, read in the light of the case-law set out in the judgment in Reichel-Albert, (2) requires the Member State responsible for payment of that pension to take into account child-raising periods completed in another Member State in which the beneficiary resided for several years, even if that beneficiary did not pay contributions to the statutory pension insurance scheme of the first Member State before or immediately after those child-raising periods.
Findings of the Court
After confirming that Article 44(2) of Regulation No 987/2009 is not applicable to the dispute in the main proceedings, the Court finds that the case-law set out in the judgment in Reichel-Albert can be transposed to the present case.
The Court infers from this that Article 21 TFEU requires the Member State responsible for the payment of the pension in question to take into account, for the purposes of granting that pension, the child-raising periods completed by the person concerned in another Member State where it is established that there is a sufficient link between those child-raising periods and the periods of insurance completed by that person as a result of the pursuit of an occupational activity in the first Member State.
The existence of such a ‘sufficient link’ must be regarded as established where the person concerned has exclusively completed periods of insurance, by virtue of periods of training or occupational activity, in the Member State responsible for payment of his or her pension, both before and after the completion of the child-raising periods in another Member State.
The Court then concludes, on the basis of Article 1(t) of Regulation No 883/2004, (3) which is also relevant in the context of the interpretation of Article 21 TFEU, that the Member States may provide, in their national legislation, that certain periods of a person’s life during which he or she did not pursue an activity as an employed or self-employed person subject to compulsory insurance and did not therefore pay contributions are to be treated as ‘periods of insurance’ completed in the Member State concerned.
In such a case, the fact that the person concerned did not pay contributions in that Member State during the periods thus treated, by its national legislation, as such periods of insurance cannot rule out the existence of a sufficient link between the child-raising periods completed by that person in another Member State and the periods of insurance completed in the first Member State.
In that regard, it appears, subject to verification by the referring court, that, in the case in the main proceedings, there is a sufficient link between the child-raising periods completed by VA in the Netherlands and the periods of insurance which she completed exclusively in Germany, both before those child-raising periods – as regards the periods of training treated in German law as periods of insurance – and after those child-raising periods – as regards the periods of employment – despite the fact that she did not pay contributions in the latter Member State before or immediately after those child-raising periods.
According to the Court, in a situation such as that at issue in the main proceedings, the length of the period of residence of the person concerned in the Member State in which that person has devoted himself or herself to bringing up his or her children is irrelevant.
Consequently, in such a situation, the Member State responsible for payment of the pension at issue in the main proceedings cannot, without placing its nationals who have exercised their freedom of movement at a disadvantage and thus infringing Article 21 TFEU, preclude child-raising periods from being taken into account solely on the ground that they were completed in another Member State. Accordingly, the Member State responsible for payment of that pension is required, under that provision, to take those child-raising periods into account for the purposes of calculating that pension, despite the fact that that person did not pay contributions in that Member State before or immediately after those child-raising periods.