Last week (8 December 2022), the Court of Justice delivered the judgment on the case No C-731/21, GV v. Caisse nationale d’assurance pension.
The dispute in the main proceeding arises when, in December 2016, GV applies to Caisse nationale d’assurance pension (CNAP) for the grant of a survivor’s pension. GV and her partner, both French citizens residing in France and working in Luxemburg, registered in France, in December 2015, a joint declaration of a civil solidarity pact (PACS). A few months later, in October 2016, GV’s partner died due to an accident at work. Her request for a survivor’s pension was rejected on the ground that the registered partnership was not effective vis-à-vis third parties, since the PACS registered in France had not been recorded in Luxembourg, as required by Luxemburg legislation for the partnerships registered abroad. All her subsequent appeals – based on Arts 18, 45 and 48 TFEU and Art 7(2) of Regulation (EU) No 492/2011 – were rejected too, on the ground that Luxembourg legislation did not discriminate directly between Luxembourg partners and partners who are nationals of another Member State, whether the partnership was entered into in Luxembourg or abroad. However, the Supreme Court of Luxembourg (Cour de cassation), uncertain whether the legislation in force gives rise to indirect discrimination, referred the following question to the Court of Justice for a preliminary ruling: “Does EU law, in particular Arts 18, 45 and 48 TFEU, and Art 7(2) of Regulation No 492/2011, preclude provisions of the law of a Member State, which make the grant, to the surviving partner of a partnership properly entered into and registered in the Member State of origin, of a survivor’s pension, due as a result of the exercise by the deceased partner of a professional activity in the host Member State, subject to the condition that the partnership was recorded in a register kept by that State for the purposes of verifying compliance with the substantive conditions required by the law of that Member State in order to recognise a partnership and ensure its effectiveness vis-à-vis third parties, whereas the grant of a survivor’s pension to the surviving partner of a partnership entered into in the host Member State is subject to the sole condition that the partnership has been properly entered into and registered there?”
In the decision, the Court of Justice stated that Art 45 TFEU and Art 7 of Regulation No 492/2011 “as precluding legislation of a host Member State which provides that the grant, to the surviving partner of a partnership that was validly entered into and registered in another Member State, of a survivor’s pension due on account of the exercise, in the first Member State, of a professional activity by the deceased partner, is subject to the condition that the partnership was first recorded in the register kept by that State”.
On registered partnership, the readers of RDIPP may refer to:
Hans Ulrich Jessurun d’Oliveira, 2000, No 2, 293 ff.; Giulia Rossolillo, 2003, No 2, 363 ff.; Angelika Fuchs, 2016, No 2, 445 ff.; Paul Lagarde, 2016, No 3, 676 ff.; Cristina Campiglio, 2017, No 1, 33 ff.; Domenico Damascelli, 2017, No 1, 67 ff.; Ilaria Viarengo, 2018, No 1, 33 ff.
Moreover, see, in our Book Series:
Carola Ricci, Book No 84; Lenka Válková, Book No 87.