European Property Rights and Wrongs - Diana Wallis MEP

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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. 48 A European Land Law?
Concluding remarks After some introductory remarks concerning the competence of the European Union I focussed on the difficulties which cross-border buyers of homes encounter and the fears of pensioners that they may lose pension rights for which they individually paid premiums to pension funds for many years. In all these areas, I argued, rights of home owners and of pensioners are not only protected by Article 1 of Protocol 1 of the European Convention on Human Rights, but also by the European Charter of Fundamental Rights, as we are in a grey or mixed area between the national laws of the Member-States and European law. 49
Page 1 and 2: European Property Rights & Wrongs E
Page 3 and 4: Contents Introduction 5 A few words
Page 5 and 6: Introduction A few words from Diana
Page 7 and 8: with property rights (this being su
Page 9 and 10: level and provides a counterweight
Page 11 and 12: European Property Wrongs - what can
Page 13 and 14: area particularly in the resort of
Page 15 and 16: not be readily accessible to be sea
Page 17 and 18: the issues confronting citizens. So
Page 19 and 20: Realizing that on our own, or even
Page 21 and 22: The difficulties have arisen from t
Page 23 and 24: The lobbying continues to find a po
Page 25 and 26: the people of Parcent who welcomed
Page 27 and 28: The differences in conceptual and i
Page 29 and 30: Peter Sparkes European Land Law: to
Page 31 and 32: Two aspects of EU competence will n
Page 33 and 34: A lawyer equipped to handle the fir
Page 35 and 36: Bram Akkermans Property Law in Euro
Page 37 and 38: curacy of the information offered.
Page 39 and 40: the doctrine of effectiveness (effe
Page 41 and 42: Treaties are neutral whether shares
Page 43 and 44: Short Bibliography Bram Akkermans,
Page 45 and 46: Given the enormous divergence betwe
Page 47: sense, meaning the fullest right a
Page 51 and 52: which the land is sited, that is fo
Page 53 and 54: The Valencian legislators need to b
Page 55 and 56: use law is regionalised and so the
Page 57 and 58: Practical solutions to the challeng
Page 59 and 60: egions. For example in Spain, commu
Page 61 and 62: Let me give you another example, th
Page 63 and 64: • The Brussels I Regulation No.44
Page 65 and 66: puted, perhaps leading to the loss
Page 67 and 68: the land books. These rights are ve
Page 69 and 70: ance needs to be struck between pro
Page 71: www.alde.eu www.dianawallismep.org.

European Property Rights and Wrongs - Diana Wallis MEP

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