ANDREJEVA v. LATVIA JUDGMENT – SEPARATE OPINION 45 The scope of the case 11. The Government raised a preliminary objection as concerns the years during which the applicant had worked for an all-Union enterprise, Orghim with its registered office in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (Ukrainian SSR). The Government argued that by the time of the lodging of the application, the facts submitted by both parties showed that since the bilateral treaty between Latvia and Ukraine had been signed in 1999, the applicant had become eligible to have her pension recalculated taking into consideration the years of work during which the enterprise based in the Ukrainian SSR had paid relevant contributions to the Soviet budget (see paragraph 25 of the judgment). In her 2002 observations, the applicant had already rebutted the Government’s submission regarding the treaty with Ukraine, saying that the existence of this treaty had allowed an increase of the amount of her pension but had not allowed a retrospective repayment to be made (see paragraph 48 of the judgment). 12. The majority consider that the Government are estopped from raising the preliminary objection at this stage since it was raised for the first time in their observations on the merits submitted on 20 October 2006 after the decision on admissibility had been adopted on 11 July 2006 (see paragraphs 46 and 49 of the judgment). It is to be noted that in these submissions, as reiterated in their submissions to the Grand Chamber, the Government repeated that the fact concerning the treaty with Ukraine had been known all along to the Court and should have been part of the Court’s initial assessment of the scope of the case since it related to the question of whether the applicant could claim to be a victim in this part of her application. Normally, the Court assesses the victim status of applicants as part of the initial establishment of its jurisdiction. Of course, if the issue is closely linked to the merits of the case, the Court may indeed say so. 13. I consider that the majority’s approach in this case is both too formalistic as concerns the doctrine of estoppel (contrast Blečić v. Croatia [GC], no. 59532/00, §§ 65-66, ECHR 2006-III) and avoids the issue of the ex nunc or ex tunc character of the pecuniary right which was raised by the applicant. Moreover, the parties were asked before the Grand Chamber to elaborate on the victim status of the applicant with respect to her employment for an entity based in the Ukrainian SSR. The Grand Chamber has the power to reassess the Government’s preliminary objections. It could have decided that they are linked to the merits, which, in its turn, would have required that the Court rule on the ex nunc or ex tunc character of the right claimed. The judgment of the Grand Chamber does not give a clear answer to that question, except by saying that the issue will be dealt with under Article 41. Under this heading, the Court notes that the applicant has suffered both pecuniary and non-pecuniary damage and awards an amount