Hungary has won a lawsuit in relation to the reform of its private pension system. The European Court of Human Rights set a legal precedent in its decision and will in future reject all petitions on the same subject matter without further investigation.

The Court declared Hungarian-Serbian dual citizen E.B.’s petition filed in relation to the reform inadmissible. E.B. was legally required to join a private pension fund at her first employer in 2008. However, the two-pillar mandatory pension system ended in 2010, when amendments were made to the pension legislation. Citizens were then allowed to choose between the private and state pension scheme and the applicant joined the private scheme.

Due to statutory changes, contributions of private pension fund members were required to be transferred to the state scheme rather than to the individual private pension funds. E.B. then filed a petition with the Court because she felt her property rights were infringed.

After reviewing the Hungarian legislative amendments related to the reform, the Court ruled that contributions made to either fund equally made her eligible for future pension payments and there had therefore been no interference with any of her rights.

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