SAVICKIS AND OTHERS v. LATVIA JUDGMENT “86. The Court accepts that the difference in treatment complained of pursues at least one legitimate aim that is broadly compatible with the general objectives of the Convention, namely the protection of the country’s economic system. It is undisputed that after the restoration of Latvia’s independence and the subsequent break-up of the USSR, the Latvian authorities were confronted with an abundance of problems linked to both the need to set up a viable social security system and the reduced capacity of the national budget. Furthermore, the fact that the provision in issue was not introduced until 1995, four years after Latvia’s independence had been fully restored, is not decisive in the instant case. It is not surprising that a newly established democratic legislature should need time for reflection in a period of political turmoil to enable it to consider what measures were required to ensure the country’s economic well-being. It cannot therefore be concluded that the fact that Latvia did not introduce the difference in treatment until 1995 showed that the State itself did not deem such a measure necessary to protect the national economy (see, mutatis mutandis, Ždanoka, cited above, § 131).” 198. The Court notes that the Constitutional Court gave its second judgment regarding pension rights in 2011, that is, after the delivery of the Court’s judgment in Andrejeva, which was taken into account and analysed by the Constitutional Court. According to the Constitutional Court’s reasoning, the impugned difference in treatment has at least two legitimate aims. The first, and most important according to the domestic authorities, was the need to protect the constitutional identity of the Republic of Latvia, which is based on the principle of State continuity as set out in the Declaration on the Restoration of Independence and subsequent constitutional provisions and doctrine. The Court observes that the essential point in this regard is not the doctrine of State continuity per se but rather the constitutional foundation of the Republic of Latvia following the restoration of its independence. The underlying arguments for Latvia’s doctrine of State continuity stem from the overall historical and demographic background which, as argued by the Government, accordingly also informed the setting up of the impugned system of retirement pensions following the restoration of Latvia’s independence. More specifically, the Court acknowledges that the aim in that context was to avoid retrospective approbation of the consequences of the immigration policy practised in the period of unlawful occupation and annexation of the country. In this specific historical context, such an aim, as pursued by the Latvian legislature when establishing the system of retirement pensions, was consistent with the efforts to rebuild the nation’s life following the restoration of independence, and the Court accepts this aim as legitimate. The second legitimate aim, as the Court established in the Andrejeva case, was the protection of the country’s economic system (ibid., § 86). 199. It therefore remains to be determined whether there was a reasonable relationship of proportionality between these aims and the means employed by the Latvian authorities. 66