European Property Rights and Wrongs - Diana Wallis MEP

veyancing experts fear that buyers and sellers may not be adequately informed
about, e.g., public law limitations.
Pension rights
As a result of the financial crisis, banks, pension funds and even Member States
have come in grave problems. Pension funds (as is now happening in the
Netherlands) inform their clients that they no longer can guarantee that rights,
which have been built up in the past by paying premiums, will be effective upon
reaching the retirement age and that pensions even may have to be cut. In as far as
these measures are the outcome of austerity measures agreed upon at an EU level,
EU citizens may invoke the EU Charter, referring not only to article 17 (protecting
ownership, quoted above), but also article 25, protecting the rights of the elderly:
“The Union recognises and respects the rights of the elderly to lead a life of dignity
and independence and to participate in social and cultural life.” From decisions by
the European Court of Human Rights it becomes clear that participants in pension
schemes may not expect that this system will never change. However, participants
in pension funds who paid individual premiums for their own private benefit do
have a legitimate and protected expectation. In my view, when their rights are
affected by EU imposed austerity measures they are not only protected by the
European Convention, but also by the European Charter. This is even more the
case, when taking into account article 25 of the Charter. How can elderly people
lead a life of dignity and independence when their pensions are cut and how can
they still then participate in social and cultural life?
Whether pensions (or social security benefits) are protected “property” or
not is rapidly becoming a question that crosses the borderline of law and politics
and turns into a purely political question, given the impact on national budgets
and decisions of pension funds, affecting large parts of the population. If that
happens, protection of the right to property becomes of even greater importance.
Fundamental human rights, as the right to property, do not stop where economic
crisis and austerity measures begin. It is precisely in times of crisis that
these rights must be effective, respected and protected by all involved, especially,
in final instance, courts.
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A European Land Law?