Europa The fact that a provision creating benefits for victims of war or its consequences is inserted in national social security legislation is not by itself decisive in determining that the benefit referred to in the above-mentioned provision is a social security benefit within the meaning of regulation no 1408/71, as the distinction between benefits which are excluded from the field of application of that regulation and benefits which come within it rests entirely on the factors relating to each benefit, in particular its purposes and the conditions for its grant. Article 4 (4) of regulation no 1408/71 must be interpreted as meaning that the regulation does not apply to benefits for former prisoners of war consisting in the grant, to workers who prove that they underwent a long period of captivity, of an advanced old-age pension, the essential purpose of such benefits being to provide for former prisoners of war testimony of national gratitude for the hardships endured between 1939 and 1945 on behalf of France and its allies and thus granting them, by the provision of a social benefit, a quid pro quo for the services rendered to those states.
Citations:
C-9/78
European, Benefits
Updated: 10 April 2022; Ref: scu.132589
