Pensions: years at international bodies now count

The Official State Gazette (BOE) of 8 January 2024 publishes Royal Decree 1133/2023 of 19 December, which sets out how periods worked at intergovernmental international organisations are counted for contributory Social Security pensions: retirement, permanent incapacity and death and survivor benefits arising from common contingencies. It takes effect on 9 January. Until now, those years of service were not taken into account in the Spanish system, and there was no general mechanism for transferring rights with those organisations’ pension schemes.

The rule develops an obligation that comes from European case law. In its judgment of 4 July 2013 (case C-233/12, Gardella), the Court of Justice of the European Union held that the free movement of workers precludes a State from disregarding, for old-age pension purposes, periods of employment completed at an international organisation located in another Member State. The 2018 Budget Act left its application to a regulation, which now arrives. For someone who worked abroad and paid little in Spain, it can mean going from no pension to having one.

Who is covered

The royal decree is aimed at people who pay or have paid into Spanish Social Security and who have worked, here or in another EU State, for one or more intergovernmental international organisations located in the EU, provided they paid into its pension scheme and were not covered by Spanish Social Security or that of the country where they worked. Employee status is proved by a certificate from the organisation, which is passed to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to confirm its nature.

Periods whose contributions were refunded to the worker or transferred to another pension scheme are left out. Nor are they added if the person has less than one year of contributions in Spain, or when they overlap in time with periods contributed in Spain or in another EU State.

Only where needed

The counting is subsidiary. It applies only when, without the years at the international organisation, the pension could not be granted: because the minimum contribution period is not reached, because the specific qualifying period (the share of contributions that must fall within a given stretch of time) is not met, or because the person is neither registered nor in an equivalent situation when the contingency occurs. Beforehand it is checked that Spanish contributions are not enough, nor the sum of periods from other countries with a treaty or under the European coordination regulation.

For registration purposes it is enough to be working at the organisation and paying into its scheme, or to receive from it a pension for the same risk, provided the person was previously affiliated and registered in Spanish Social Security.

Calculation and retroactivity

The amount is calculated in two steps. First, a theoretical amount is set, the one that would apply if those years had been contributed in Spain. Then the actual amount is obtained by applying the ratio between what was contributed in the Spanish system and the total periods considered. The result is subject to the general rules for contributory pensions, such as amount caps, indexation and the supplement to reduce the gender gap.

The royal decree applies to pensions whose triggering event occurred from 4 July 2013. Those claimed for events before its entry into force are recognised from the date they arose, with a maximum of three months’ retroactive economic effect from the claim, and rejected ones can be reviewed at the person’s request within the same limit. Anyone who has worked at such organisations, or their family, may wish to discuss with an adviser whether to review their situation.

A right recognised by European case law more than ten years ago finally gets its regulation in Spain.

This article is general information. It is not legal, tax or investment advice, and it does not take anyone’s particular circumstances into account.