Order of the Court of Trieste, Labor Section, 12 December 2014

Through this order, the Court in Milan raised an exception of constitutionality concerning Article 80.19 of law No. 388/2000, for the part in which it excludes from entitlement to disability pension for deaf people the non-EU nationals who legally stay in Italy but do not have a long-residence permit. The Constitutional Court ruled in many decisions that provisions with similar content were unconstitutional, and annulled these provisions, as being incompatible with the principle that the right to social security – as the other fundamental rights – must be recognized to all individuals, irrespective of nationality (see, among others, decision No. 40 of 2013). However, Article 14 of the ECHR on non-discrimination is not immediately applicable by Italian judges. There was not the possibility, in addition, to interpret Article 80.19 in such a manner as to put in line its content with the jurisprudence of the Constitutional Court and the European Court of Human Rights. Given this, the Court of Milan had no other to do but to defer the question to the Constitutional Court.