45Accordingly, for the purpose of determining whether a retirement pension falls within the scope of Article 119 of the Treaty, the Court has held that a decisive criterion is the existence of a link between the employment relationship and the retirement benefit, and has not regarded the structural elements of a system of pension benefits as playing a decisive role. The fact that the pension scheme laid down by Law 280/1966 is part of a harmonised system, so that the total pension received by an insured person reflects the work carried out during his entire career, irrespective of the type of work and sector of activity concerned, and the fact that that scheme was notified as a scheme falling within the scope of Regulation No 1408/71 are not sufficient in themselves to preclude the application of Article 119 of the Treaty, if the pension benefit is linked to the employment relationship and, as a result, it is paid by the State in its capacity as employer.
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