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 the provision of pensions to workers of the EAEU member states (hereinafter - the Agreement).
What and when will Kazakhstanis and other citizens of the EAEU countries receive from this Agreement?
1. The Agreement has been signed, but it will enter into force only after passing the ratification procedure by all EAEU countries (Article 14 of the Agreement, work is currently underway in the EAEU countries, including Kazakhstan), tentatively no later than 2021.
2. After the entry into force of the Agreement, workers of the EAEU countries will receive a pension not only for the length of service in their homeland, but also for the length of service in other EAEU states acquired after the date of entry into force of the Agreement (Article 12 of the Agreement).
3. The agreement will apply to workers and members of their families. At the same time, the Agreement determines that the worker is a citizen of the EAEU member state, whose pension rights are formed or formed through the implementation of labor or other activities in the territory of another EAEU member state (Article 1 of the Agreement).
4. The main purpose of the Agreement is the formation of the pension rights of the working member states on the same conditions and in the same manner as the citizens of the state of employment. Under the Agreement, a member state of the EAEU must guarantee to citizens of other member states of the EAEU the amount of pension rights equal to the amount of rights granted to its citizens on similar conditions (Article 3 of the Agreement).
5. The types of pensions granted 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 UAPF and to pension payments from 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);
• lump sum payment to heirs.
6. In the event that workers in the EAEU countries form pension rights after the entry into force of the Agreement, the right to assign and pay a pension will be exercised 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 pensions to workers will be governed by the national legislation of each EAEU Member State.
7. If the work experience of a worker acquired in the territory of one Member State after the entry into force of the Agreement is not sufficient for the right to a pension to arise (with the exception of the funded pension), then the work experience acquired in the territories of other EAEU countries will be taken into account, in accordance with the legislation of each of the Member States, with the exception of cases when such work experience coincides in time (Article 7 of the Agreement).
8. In order to assign disability pension benefits 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 will be carried out according to the legislation of the country of employment, according to the legislation of which the appointment will be made and the payment of a disability pension (Article 9 of the Agreement).
9. A worker will be entitled to receive a pension in the territory of the state of residence or of the EAEU member state that has appointed a pension (Article 4 of the Agreement).
10. Each EAEU Member State will calculate the amount of the pension in the manner prescribed by the legislation of the Member State that appoints the pension subject to 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 country after the entry into force of the Agreement, then if a 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 coefficients - in the Russian Federation), the country in which the migrant worked will assign a pension for the worked experience 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.