As the applicant had been employed from 1973 to 1990 by entities based in Kiev and Moscow, her pension was calculated solely in respect of the time she had worked before and after that period.
The Court unanimously concluded that the fact Andrejeva was unable to take part in the hearing of 6 October 1999 as it had started earlier than scheduled violated Article 6 of the ECHR.
Concerning the government's objections that "In view of the financial burden borne by Latvia and the limited capacity of its national budget, it was not unreasonable for it to assume full responsibility for the pensions of its own citizens alone" (para.
88) and that "dismissing the victim's claims on the ground that he or she could have avoided the discrimination by altering one of the factors in question – for example, by acquiring a nationality – would render Article 14 devoid of substance" (para.
The Court accepted that the difference in treatment between non-citizens and citizens pursued at least one legitimate aim that was broadly compatible with the general objectives of the convention, namely the protection of the country's economic system.
[9] In February 2012, the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance published its report on Latvia, noting that "the Constitutional Court's decision, at best, gives a very narrow interpretation of the ECHR's judgment" and that the approach taken by authorities "fails to address the 'non-citizens', who have worked in the remaining 9 former USSR republics, in respect of which a bilateral agreement has not been signed.
[11] In 2013, the Advisory Committee on the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities adopted its second opinion on Latvia, stating "Regarding access to pensions, the Advisory Committee regrets that the 2009 Andrejeva Judgment of the European Court on Human Rights has not led to a comprehensive solution regarding the calculation of pensions of citizens and 'non-citizens'.
It notes the Government's view that the judgment has been implemented by signing bilateral agreements with the Russian Federation and a number of other countries in which 'non-citizens' spent periods of employment under the Soviet Union, but remains concerned by the fact that these agreements do not cover all former republics of the Soviet Union and are therefore not suitable to address the situation vis-à-vis all 'non-citizens'.