Italy’s constitutional court has declared unlawful a rule requiring annual transfers from first-pillar pension funds for professionals (casse di previdenza) to the state budget.
The Corte Costituzionale said the structural and ongoing levy risks undermining the long-term financial stability of a system “geared towards economic self-sufficiency”, which is legally prohibited from receiving state support if its balance is eroded.
According to the court, the obligation to transfer funds annually violates norms governing the proper management of first-pillar pension funds and conflicts with spending review rules that limit expenditure to assets set aside to pay benefits. The levy effectively reduces savings earmarked for pension payments.
The case before the court pitted the surveyors’ pension scheme Cassa Geometri against the Ministry of Economy and Finance.
The finance ministry had previously rejected a proposal to establish a reimbursement fund for sums paid by professional pension schemes to the state, following a similar 2017 constitutional court ruling involving Cassa Dottori Commercialisti.
In its submission, Cassa Geometri argued that the transfers were permanent rather than temporary, which undermined their “exceptional nature”.
Italy’s prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, who was represented by the state attorney general, argued that the challenge should be declared inadmissible and unfounded.
The state maintained that the transfers were an alternative mechanism to meet public spending constraints, as they balanced pension fund autonomy with fiscal requirements.
However, the court rejected that argument. In its ruling, it said the pension fund “inappropriately sacrifices its interest” in maintaining assets to ensure benefit payments in order to serve a general state interest that delivers only marginal fiscal improvement.
