Crucial hearing on 2012-2019 pension cuts starts at Council of State

A hearing that will determine whether the Greek state needs to return billions of euros in pension cuts imposed as part austerity measures during the 2012-2019 period starts at the Council of State (CoS) in Athens on Friday.

The hearing concerns 46 plaintiffs but any decision reached by the country’s highest administrative court will affect thousands of disgruntled pensioners after CoS president Katerinal Sakellaropoulou decided to make this a landmark case that will act as a precedent for other similar claims challenging the constitutionality of pension cuts.

Moderate estimates say that unless the plaintiffs’ case is rejected, the state faces a bill of up to more than 26 billion euros, though pundits argue that these expectations may be far-fetched given the direction of previous rulings by the court.

Nevertheless, the decision of the court is expected to provide a framework for clearing up thousands of pending cases.