Days after the Social Solidarity Ministry argued its stand over points raised by this newspaper over pensions, including the long-standing issue over service pensions, the EU’s Attorney General concluded that the deduction of part of the pensions received by former employees of the British government is in breach of EU rules.
If the European Court of Justice confirms the legal opinion, its judgment will vindicate the stand taken so valiantly by the pensioners’ associations in fighting for their members’ rights. Considering that it has been an uphill struggle all the way, the National Association of Service Pensioners had good reason to be overjoyed at the news.
Its general secretary, Publius Grech, said immediately after the legal opinion was made known: “We have been waiting so long for this and, finally, we are seeing light at the end of the tunnel. Successive governments have been taking us for a ride for far too long.”
In a somewhat technical opinion, the EU Attorney General, Ives Bot, is proposing that, on the basis of his considerations, “the Court should hold that, by reducing, pursuant to article 56 of the Social Security Act, Maltese old-age pensions by the amount of the United Kingdom pensions provided under the Principal Civil Service Pension Scheme 1974, the National Health Service Pension Scheme 1995 and the Armed Forces Pension Scheme 1975, the Republic of Malta has failed to fulfil its obligations under article 46b of Council Regulation (EEC) No 1408/71 of June 14, 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”.
In its longish reply to the editorial in this newspaper, the ministry’s communications coordinator chose to reply in this manner to the comment that the service pension issue needs to be settled ‘once and for all “It is, however, simplistic to expect that this sensitive issue can be resolved by the stroke of a pen, although it is pertinent to remind the Times of Malta and all that service pensioners (when adding their pension with the social security pension they receive) are in the vast majority of cases receiving pension income which exceeds the highest rate of social security pension in Malta paid to those on one pension.”
Nobody has ever said that the service pension issue, created by a Labour government in 1979 and which has remained unresolved since then, is a simple matter. But justice demands that the pensioners’ rights are fully upheld, not abused, as they have been throughout all these years.
The issue of how much a decision in favour of the pensioners will cost the taxpayer is another matter that the government will have to face when the time comes. It all depends on the kind of decision to be taken by the Court, whether or not, for instance, it decides to give arrears backdated to the time Malta joined the European Union.
Finance Minister Edward Scicluna has already said that, if the Court decides in favour of the service pensioners, the decision will cost €6 million annually, a sum that will go down over the years with the passing away of pensioners. If the Court awards arrears as well, the government would have to fork out an additional €40 million.
The thrust of this newspaper’s editorial was that the pension reforms announced in the Budget, while welcome, fell short of expectations. If the European Court of Justice confirms the legal opinion, justice will be done to service pensioners.