The ECHR establishes that those who claim the widow's pension before 2014 cannot be required to have the relationship registered

The court orders Spain to compensate two women who filed an appeal against the decision of the Social Security

MADRID, 19 Ene. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has concluded that the obligation to register the relationship cannot be applied retroactively to those who have claimed the widow's pension before 2014, when the Constitutional Court established said requirement.

The court based in Luxembourg has unanimously agreed to condemn Spain to compensate two women with 8,000 euros plus taxes to whom the aforementioned requirement was applied retroactively in order to enjoy the subsidy. The magistrates have considered that the Administration violated the rights of both plaintiffs.

As stated in a sentence handed down this Thursday, the two women requested help when it was not yet mandatory to register the relationship, because it was not until 2014 when the Constitutional Court set said criteria. Both, however, were denied a widow's pension because they did not meet that requirement.

"The partners of the claimants died on November 5, 2013 and January 7, 2014, respectively. Under the corresponding legislation in force at that specific time and applicable to the applicants, neither of them needed to have been formally registered in a specific registry or by a notary public as part of a civil union to benefit from a widow's pension", the magistrates have indicated in the 41-page resolution.

Thus, the ECtHR has concluded that denying them said subsidy must be considered as an interference in their right to the peaceful enjoyment of their possessions.

These are two unrelated cases that the court has accumulated in a single sentence. The first concerns a woman who claims to have lived with her partner since 2007: they had a joint account, a lease and were registered with the local municipality as cohabitants since 2012. The man died in 2013, when the woman was pregnant .

In this case, the woman unsuccessfully applied for the widow's pension before the National Social Security Institute, although she did obtain the orphan's pension for her son. The authorities denied the applicant the subsidy because she did not meet one of the requirements: she had not formalized the relationship in a registry or notarial deed for at least two years before her partner died.

The woman brought the case before the national courts. Although the Spanish Justice sided with her at first, Social Security and the private insurer appealed in second instance and managed to have her widow's petition dismissed. The woman then went before the Supreme Court and the Constitutional Court, but she did not see her claim prosper.

The second case corresponds to another woman who lived with her partner between 2008 and 2013 without formalizing her situation. When the man died in 2014, she applied for the widow's pension, but Social Security denied the request because it was not possible to prove that they had lived together without interruption for at least five years under a registered civil union.

Shortly after that same year, the Constitution established an essential requirement to request said subsidy, the obligation to register the relationship, but the woman filed an appeal against the decision of the Social Security, considering that the registration of the union was not necessary in her life. case, because Catalonia has its own body of civil law and she had complied with the requirements of Catalan law.

This case ended up in court, but the widow was unsuccessful, so she finally appealed to the European Court of Human Rights, which has now agreed with her.

The court has recalled that the regulations "are subject to change" and that it cannot be prevented from regulating, through new retroactive provisions, the pension rights derived from the laws in force. It has affected, however, that --despite the change set by the Constitution-- in both cases the widow's pension should have been approved because the partners of the two women died before the guarantee court ruled.