Widely quoted reports in Athens on Tuesday cited a decision by the Council of State, Greece’s highest administrative court, striking down a landmark piece of legislation to include self-employed professionals (physicians, lawyers, engineers etc) in the new universal primary social security fund, known as EFKA in its Greek-language acronym.
The reports claimed that the decision was taken by a majority of CoS justices, with its publication pending. Similar press reports citing leaks of CoS rulings have rarely been disproved in the past.
Based on the same reports, the high court also struck down a provision in the controversial pension reform, whereby self-employed professionals had to fork over social security contributions of up to 26.5 percent of their income. The contributions, moreover, are calculated on the previous year’s income.
The law, one of the more contentious passed by the leftist-rightist Greek coalition government in order to meet memorandum-mandated fiscal targets, also obliged farmers to contribute to the new fund as beneficiaries.
