By Elena Galari

The right of pensioners to receive, in addition to the widow’s pension, a second pension such as old age or disability, was dealt with by the First Department of the Council of State.

Seven pensioners’ associations are asking the Supreme Court of Annulment to annul a document of the Deputy Minister of Labor and Social Affairs, Panagiotis Tsakloglou, according to which a pensioner who receives multiple pensions can only receive one national pension.

The pensioners’ lawyers argued that the contested act is unconstitutional and violates the principle of good legislation and the principle of legal certainty, while the Ministry, for its part, stated that the double national pension cannot be justified on the basis of the accumulation of a death pension with another pension, as long as a minimum death pension has been legislated and granted.

In her position, the rapporteur stated that “the question arises whether the contested document, in view of its content, constitutes a simple interpretive circular without enforceable nature or whether, on the contrary, it sets new regulations, and, therefore, constitutes in essence an enforceable regulatory act , which, since it was not published in the CoE, is non-existent and voidable for reasons of legal certainty”.

The SC reserved its decision