Restoration of the minimum OGA pension for elderly Pontic Greeks repatriated from the former USSR and for ethnic Greeks from northern Epirus

Memorandum law 4093/2012 axed OGA pensions and healthcare for 25 000 uninsured elderly ethnic Greeks from the former Soviet Union and for thousands of ethnic Greeks from northern Epirus, since it makes twenty years’ permanent and legal residence in Greece a precondition for eligibility for the preferential allowance for uninsured elderly persons provided for under law 1296/1982. This amounts to discrimination against these ethnic Greeks.

Moreover, law 4093/2012 stipulated as a new condition that the above beneficiaries should neither receive a pension from their countries of origin nor be entitled to do so.

The provisions of law 4093/2012 are contrary to EC law and in particular are in breach of Directive 2000/43 on the application of the principle of equal treatment between persons irrespective of racial or ethnic origin, the provisions of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights (right to decent living standards), the rights of the elderly (Article 25), Article 34 on social assistance and the provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights of the Council of Europe.

In view of the above, will the Commission say:

What measures will it take — and within which timeframe — to implement the relevant provisions of EC law, so as to put an immediate end to the social injustice suffered by those formerly entitled to an OGA pension and restore the pension they received prior to the enactment of law 4093/2012?

Source: European Parliament

Answer given by Ms Jourová on behalf of the Commission

The Commission would like to refer the Honourable Member to its reply to Question E-001910/2013 concerning the rights of ethnic Greeks from the USSR and from Northern Epirus.

Source: European Parliament