The ECtHR endorses giving a widow's pension to a woman who registered their relationship 3 days before her partner died

He agrees with the woman in concluding that she should not have been forced to "bend over backwards" to receive the grant

MADRID, 26 Ene. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has endorsed this Thursday that the widow's pension be granted to a Spanish woman who registered their relationship three days before her partner died in July 2014, although she did so three months after it was established. the requirement that the couple must be registered for at least two years before the death of one of them, considering that a grace period should have been established to demand said requirement.

In a sentence, collected by Europa Press, the court based in Strasbourg has agreed - by four votes against three - to condemn Spain, considering that it violated the right of women, although it has not set compensation to be paid because the widow He did not request any economic compensation to repair the damage.

As the court has explained, in this case "the most appropriate way" to repair the damage would be to review the final decisions adopted by the Spanish courts because they constituted a violation of the European Convention on Human Rights. The decision of the court has had the concurring particular vote of two of the magistrates and the dissenting particular vote of three others.

The court has studied the case of a Spanish woman who was denied a widow's pension by the National Social Security Institute (INSS). According to the resolution, the plaintiff lived in Catalonia with her partner -with whom she had a daughter- "uninterruptedly" for more than eight years; but he died in July 2014, three days after she registered her civil union.

At that time, one of the requirements to access the subsidy – which came into force three months before the man died – was that the couple had been registered for at least two years before the death of one of the two. The woman applied for the widow's pension before the INSS and, given the refusal of the Administration, she went to the national courts. She took her case to the Supreme Court and then to the Constitutional Court. Dissatisfied with the result, she filed a lawsuit before Strasbourg.

The ECHR has sided with the woman in concluding that she should not have been forced to "do the impossible" to receive the widow's pension. The magistrates have criticized the fact that there was no "transitional period" or a grace period for those cases close to the date on which the requirement in question was established.

"The requirement to formalize the civil union at least two years before the death of one of the members of the couple simply turned out to be, in the case of the plaintiff, one that was impossible to fulfill," the court said.

The magistrates have stressed that although Spain has a "broad margin of appreciation in the choice of the measures that govern pensions" it is not justified that there are no transitional provisions that respond to situations such as that of the plaintiff.

In 28 pages, the ECHR has explained that it sees no reason why the woman and her partner were obliged to formalize their union by means of a public document since 2012, when the Constitutional Court admitted the question of unconstitutionality for processing because the court of guarantees did not rule until April 2014, "only three months before the claimant became a widow".

In addition, the magistrates have ensured that the Administration's argument that the couple "always" had the freedom to marry and did not "is irrelevant", since the regulations provided for widow's pensions for common-law couples.

In this sense, the court has insisted that the plaintiff "had a legitimate basis to assume that she would be eligible for a widow's pension in the event of the death of her partner." And it has concluded that it has not been proven that the fact that they formalized their relationship three days before he died could be taken as an indication of fraud.

From the ECtHR they have recalled that the Constitutional Court ruling indicated that the new requirement by which couples subject to Catalan civil law had to formalize their respective unions "would only refer to new applications or those for which a sentence had not yet been issued." ". It has also specified that the applicant's case was one of those cases.

Thus, it has considered that denying a widow's pension to women "should be considered as an interference in their right to the peaceful enjoyment of their possessions."

Already last week, the ECHR 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.