Opinion of Advocate General Darmon delivered on 14 January 1993

1 Original language: French.

2 Judgment in Case 151/87 Bakker v Rijksdienst voor Werknemerspensioenen [1988] ECR 2009.

3 I, 1.

4 OJ 1978 L 6, p. 24.

5 A concise survey of the social provisions in force discloses three types of system: those that take no account of the situation of the inactive spouse but only of workers who have made contributions; those —the majority —that provide for an increase in the pension of the active spouse, and finally the system, a category of which the Netherlands is the sole representative that awards a personal pension to the inactive spouse.

6 I, 2.

7 See second and fourth recitals of Regulation (EEC) No 1408/71 of the Council of 14 June 1971 on the application of social security schemes to employed workers and their families moving within the Community (OJ, English Special Edition 1971 (II), p. 416).

8 Judgment in Case 41/84 Pieno Puma v Cause d'Allocations Familiales de la Savoie [1986] ECR 1.

9 Paragraph 20.

10 Paragraph 21.

11 Ibid.

12 Judgment in Case 254/84 De Jong v Sociale Verzekeringsbank [1986] ECR 671, paragraph 14.

13 Ibid., paragraph 15.

14 Judgment in Case C-349/87 Paraschi v Landesversicherungsanstalt Württemburg [1991] ECR I-4501.

15 Paragraph 15.

16 Paragraph 16.

17 Paragraph 22.

18 Paragraph 24, my emphasis.

19 Paragraph 25.

20 Paragraph 27.

21 Dissuasion from the exercise of a right recognized by the Treaty, and more particularly by Article 48, is regarded in the case-law of the Court as a possible obstacle to freedom of movement of workers (see in particular on this point the judgment in Case C-10/90 Masgio [1991] ECR I-1119, paragraph 18, paragraph 22 of the judgment in Paraschi, citecf above, and the judgment in Case C-228/88 Bronzino [1990] ECR I-531, paragraph 12).

22 Observations of the Belgian Government, at p. 5 of the French translation.

23 Paragraph 20 of its observations.