With the support of the Council of Europe project "Enhanced social protection in Ukraine", the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) legitimate expectations in limiting social benefits have been translated into Ukrainian.
The publication is available at the following link: https://rm.coe.int/ecthr-judgments-on-social-benefits-ukr-/1680afb1f4.
It includes four ECtHR decisions in cases/applications concerning legitimate (lawful) expectations of receiving social benefits by citizens of various European countries:
Case "Valverde Digon v. Spain"
In this case, the applicant, Sofía Valverde Digón, complained about the authorities' refusal to grant her a survivor's pension due to changes in Spanish legislation that required the official registration of her partnership two years before her partner's death. The European Court of Human Rights ruled that this requirement imposed an excessive burden on the applicant and did not achieve a fair balance between the interests of the parties. The Court found that the absence of a transitional period for the new requirements was unjustified.
Case "Domenech Aradilla and Rodríguez González v. Spain"
This case concerns the refusal to grant a pension due to the lack of official registration of the partnership. The Court ruled that such requirements are unreasonable and create excessive obstacles for applicants who are unable to meet these requirements due to objective circumstances.
Application "Jerzy Denysiuk v. Poland"
The application concerns the reduction of the applicant's individual pension fund due to receiving early retirement benefits for more than five years. The ECtHR declared the application inadmissible, concluding that a fair balance had been struck between the demands of the general interest of the community and the requirements of protecting fundamental human rights.The Court found that the burden imposed on the applicant was neither disproportionate nor excessive.
Application "Alenka Špoljar and Dječji Vrtić Pčelice v. Croatia"
The applicants argued that, as private entrepreneurs, they had been discriminated by local authorities in providing subsidies compared to state kindergartens. The ECtHR found the application inadmissible.
In its decisions, the ECtHR repeatedly notes that the legislative body's discretion is broad in implementing its social and economic policies, particularly regarding legislative decisions related to pensions or social benefits, which involve considering various economic and social issues. Due to their direct knowledge of their society and its needs, national authorities are better positioned than an international judge to assess what is in the public interest for social or economic reasons. The ECtHR respects the legislative body's political choice if such a choice is "not manifestly without reasonable foundation."
As a reminder, on November 2023, a two-day approbation of the training course for judges "Application of the principle of legal certainty in administrative proceedings, including in the context of legitimate expectations regarding social benefits" was held in Lviv. This course for judges became a new stage in the study of the European Convention on Human Rights.
