The pensioner, a civil service retiree since 2009, was in receipt of €1,980.72 gross per month and saw this amount cut by 4.6 percent in 2013 and 2014 within the scope of troika backed austerity measures in the wake of Portugal’s bailout programme with the pensioner unsuccessfully arguing that this was an offence to his right to property.
Furthermore, the European Court refuted this position by pointing to how the Extraordinary Solidarity Contribution had been deemed legal in the rulings handed down by Portugal’s own Constitutional Court in 2013 and 2014.
The court’s ruling also pointed to how the aforementioned contribution had only been adopted “in an extreme economic situation and as a transitory measure” and within the framework of “measures applied to pensions designed to ensure a fair balance between the general interests of the community and the protection of the human rights” of this pensioner.
The 2014 state budget had maintained this levy at 3.5 percent on all monthly pensions in excess of €1,350 even though the retroactive budget passed in January of that year lowered this ceiling to €1,000 while also upping the levy on higher level pensions.
The Constitutional Court handed down its approval of these measures in July of last year with 2015 seeing this levy in effect only on pensions in excess of €4,611.42.