Brussels, 13/12/2012 (Agence Europe) - On 13 December 2012, the European Court of Justice rules that Luxembourg's recruitment subsidy legislation appears to be contrary to the free movement of workers because the granting to employers of a subsidy for the recruitment of an unemployed person aged over 45 cannot be made subject to the condition that the unemployed person is registered with the Luxembourg employment placement office in the case where such registration is restricted to persons who are resident in Luxembourg.
EU law on the free movement of workers is intended to facilitate the pursuit, by nationals of the member states, of occupational activities of all kinds throughout the EU. In that regard, EU law precludes national measures which might place those nationals at a disadvantage when they seek to pursue an economic activity in the territory of another member state.
Ms Schmidt-Krier is a Luxembourg national who lives in Germany, close to the border with Luxembourg. She has spent her entire working life in Luxembourg. In 2008, Ms Schmidt-Krier, who was then aged 52, was recruited by a Luxembourg company, Caves Krier, on an employment contract for an indefinite period. In September 2008, Caves Krier submitted to ADEM (Luxembourg's job-seeker body) an application for a recruitment subsidy following that company's decision to recruit Ms Schmidt-Krier. By decision of 4 September 2008, ADEM rejected that application on the ground that Ms Schmidt-Krier was not registered with it as a job seeker, as required by Luxembourg legislation. Luxembourg's administrative court sent the case to the Court of Justice for clarification. (LC/transl.fl)