The experience gained in Member States where affiliation is voluntary has shown that when assisting spouses are offered the option to join or not join a pension scheme, in most cases they will not join.

(14a) The Court of Justice has consistently held that the Barber Protocol does not affect the right to join an occupational pension scheme and that the limitation of the effects in time of the judgment of the Court of Justice in Case C-262/88 Barber v Guardian Royal Exchange Assurance Group does not apply to the right to join an occupational pension scheme; the Court has also ruled that the national rules relating to time-limits for bringing actions under national law may be relied on against workers who assert their right to join an occupational pension scheme, provided that they are not less favourable for that type of action than for ...[+++] similar actions of a domestic nature and that they do not render the exercise of rights conferred by Community law impossible in practice; the Court has also pointed out that the fact that a worker can claim retroactively to join an occupational pension scheme does not allow the worker to avoid paying the contributions relating to the period of membership concerned.

1a. Member States shall also ensure that the institution offers its members the option of payment of a lifelong pension, disability cover and provision for survivors as possible additional benefits if the sponsoring undertaking does not itself already provide such benefits.

The unemployment fund of which the person concerned was most recently a member, Arbejdsdirektoratet (Directorate of Labour), København if the person concerned has not been a member of an unemployment fund.

The first pillar consists of statutory schemes, in which participation is generally compulsory. The second pillar consists of schemes linked to the worker’s employment or occupation, agreed between employer and employee; participation may in some cases be compulsory.

Member States must, for persons who have left a supplementary pension scheme as a consequence of going to work in another Member State, take the necessary measures to ensure the preservation of vested pension rights to the same extent as for persons in respect of whom contributions are no longer being made but who remain within the same Member State.