ANDREJEVA v. LATVIA JUDGMENT 27 Government thus contended that the situation complained of was largely the fault of the applicant herself, who had refused to apply for naturalisation despite having been entitled to do so since 1998. The sooner she did so, the sooner she would receive the desired portion of her pension. 73. Lastly, the Government argued that the reckoning of periods of employment outside Latvian territory was a matter to be addressed through inter-State agreements on social security. They pointed out that such agreements had already been concluded with several States and that a similar agreement with the Russian Federation had recently been approved by the parliaments of both States concerned. According to statistical data supplied by the Government, if the agreement came into force on 1 January 2009, it would apply to some 17,104 pensioners, including 16,850 “permanently resident non-citizens”. That figure could subsequently rise by approximately 1,696 new pensioners every year. B. The Court’s assessment 1. Applicability of Article 14 of the Convention 74. The Court reiterates that Article 14 of the Convention has no independent existence, since it has effect solely in relation to the rights and freedoms safeguarded by the other substantive provisions of the Convention and its Protocols (see, among many other authorities, Burden v. the United Kingdom [GC], no. 13378/05, § 58, ECHR 2008). The application of Article 14 does not necessarily presuppose the violation of one of the substantive rights guaranteed by the Convention. It is necessary but it is also sufficient for the facts of the case to fall “within the ambit” of one or more of the provisions in question (see, among many other authorities, Gaygusuz v. Austria, 16 September 1996, § 36, Reports of Judgments and Decisions 1996-IV; Thlimmenos v. Greece [GC], no. 34369/97, § 40, ECHR 2000-IV; and Koua Poirrez, cited above, § 36). The prohibition of discrimination in Article 14 thus extends beyond the enjoyment of the rights and freedoms which the Convention and Protocols require each State to guarantee. It applies also to those additional rights, falling within the general scope of any Article of the Convention, for which the State has voluntarily decided to provide (see Stec and Others, cited above, § 40). 75. It must therefore be determined whether the applicant’s interest in receiving a retirement pension from the Latvian State in respect of her years of service for enterprises based in the territory of the former USSR but outside Latvia falls within the “ambit” or “scope” of Article 1 of Protocol No. 1. 76. The Government attached considerable importance in the instant case to the difference between Soviet pensions, which were paid by the State from common budgetary resources in accordance with the solidarity