Opinion of Mr Advocate General Mancini

Mr President,

Members of the Court,

1. In these proceedings the Court is asked to give a preliminary ruling on the interpretation of Regulation No 1408/71 of the Council of 14 June 1971 on the application of social security schemes to employed persons and their families moving within the Community (Official Journal, English Special Edition 1971 (II), p. 416). In particular, it is necessary to determine whether, in the light of Article 51 (1), it is necessary to recalculate a pension determined in accordance with Article 46 when the amount of one or more benefits taken into account in the original calculation has been adjusted to compensate for an increase in die cost of living.

2. The question put by the Belgian court thus concerns Article 51 of Regulation No 1408/71. That article is headed revalorization and recalculation of benefits and comes in Chapter 3 [Old Age and Death (Pension)], but for obvious reasons of analogy it also applies to the invalidity benefits governed by Section 2 of Chapter 2. Article 51 provides :

3. In conclusion, I suggest that the Court should give the following answer to the question put by the Tribunal du Travail, Brussels, by order of 26 May 1983 pursuant to Article 177 of the EEC Treaty:

1 Translated from lhe Italian.