What do you need to know about the pension provision of workers of the EAEU countries?

On December 20, 2019, a meeting of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council was held in St. Petersburg, at which the heads of the member states of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) signed an Agreement on Pension Provision for Workers of the EAEU member States (hereinafter referred to as the Agreement).

What and when will Kazakhstanis and other citizens of the EAEU countries receive from this Agreement?

The Agreement has been signed, but it will enter into force only after passing the ratification procedure by all the EAEU countries (Article 14 of the Agreement, currently in the EAEU countries, including Kazakhstan, work is underway in this direction), approximately no later than 2021.
After the entry into force of the Agreement, the workers of the EAEU countries will receive a pension not only for work experience in their homeland, but also for work experience in other EAEU states acquired after the date of entry into force of the Agreement (Article 12 of the Agreement).
The Agreement will apply to workers and their family members. At the same time, the Agreement defines that a worker is a citizen of a member state of the EAEU, whose pension rights are being formed or have been formed through the implementation of labor or other activities on the territory of another member state of the EAEU (Article 1 of the Agreement).
The main purpose of the Agreement is to form the pension rights of workers of the Member States on the same terms and in the same manner as citizens of the State of employment. Within the framework of the Agreement, the EAEU member State must guarantee citizens of other EAEU member states the amount of pension rights equal to the amount of rights granted to its citizens on similar terms (Article 3 of the Agreement).
The types of pensions assigned by the EAEU member States to which the Agreement will apply are determined by Article 2 of the Agreement.

In Kazakhstan, the Agreement will apply to legal relations on the payment of pension contributions to the UAPF and pension payments from the UAPF:

upon reaching retirement age (according to the legislation of Kazakhstan);
when establishing disability of groups 1 and 2, if the disability is established indefinitely (according to the legislation of Kazakhstan);
one-time payment to heirs.

In the case of the formation of pension rights for workers in the EAEU countries after the entry into force of the Agreement, the exercise of the right to the appointment and payment of pensions will be carried out on the same conditions as for citizens of the country of employment.

The worker will have the right to apply for the appointment and payment of a pension to the competent authority of the State of residence and (or) employment (Article 3 of the Agreement).

The list of documents for the appointment and payment of a worker's pension will be regulated by the national legislation of each EAEU member state.

If the length of service of an employee acquired in the territory of one member state after the entry into force of the Agreement is insufficient for the right to a pension (with the exception of a funded pension), then the length of service acquired in the territories of other EAEU countries will be taken into account in accordance with the legislation of each of the member states, except for cases when such work experience coincides in time (Article 7 of the Agreement).
In order to assign disability pension payments under the Agreement, a medical examination of a worker to establish disability will be carried out according to the legislation of the country of residence at his place of residence, and a medical examination to establish the group and duration of disability – according to the legislation of the country of employment, according to the legislation of which the appointment and payment of disability pension will be made (Article 9 of the Agreement).
The worker will have the right to receive a pension in the territory of the state of residence or the EAEU member state that appointed the pension (Article 4 of the Agreement).
Each EAEU member State will calculate the pension amount in accordance with the procedure established by the legislation of the member State awarding the pension, taking into account the provisions of the Agreement (Article 8 of the Agreement).

An example of the implementation of the provisions of the Agreement:

If a citizen of Kazakhstan acquires work experience (for example, 3-5 years) in the territory of the EAEU member state after the entry into force of the Agreement, if the right to a pension arises under the terms of the pension legislation of the country of employment (reaching retirement age, having a certain length of service, the number of individual pension coefficient – in the Russian Federation), the country in which the migrant worked will assign a pension for the length of service worked in this country. At the same time, a citizen of Kazakhstan will have the right to submit an application with documents for the appointment and payment of a pension to the Pension Fund of the country of employment or to the UAPF.

The full text of the Agreement on Pension Provision for Workers of the member States of the Eurasian Economic Union can be found on the official website of the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC):