Brussels, 20/05/2014 (Agence Europe) - Member states have the right to refuse to pay welfare benefits to European passport-holders if they feel that these people have come to the country simply to receive benefits or to look for work, argued European Court of Justice judge Melchior Wathelet on Tuesday 20 May in case C-333/13 between two Romanians and the city of Leipzig in Germany.
The case was sent to the European Court of Justice in June 2013 and the opinion published by the judge will feed into the debate about welfare tourists, a debate that has been raging in the United Kingdom, Germany, France and Belgium since Romanians and Bulgarians were allowed to travel around Europe to seek work from January 2014 onwards. The economic recession and European elections have encouraged talk of the fear of a flood of European immigrants looking for work in richer member states where some say they abuse the welfare system which provides greater financial security than the welfare scheme in their country of origin.
The case in question involving a Romanian passport-holder Elisabeta Dano, who has been living in Germany with her young son, is a typical case of the type paraded about in the media. She has no professional qualifications, has never worked in either Germany or Romania and does not seem to be looking for work, and has taken the Leipzig authorities to court for refusing to pay her basic social security benefits which the unemployed are entitled to in order to cover their basic needs. Leipzig's social court asked the European Court of Justice whether this rejection, which is possible under German law, is legal under EU law.
The judge says that there is no reason to preclude the refusal to grant benefit. Member states have the right to refuse to grant special non-contributory cash benefits, like the basic social security benefits in Germany for the poverty-stricken unemployed. The German criterion that aid may be refused if someone comes to the country to receive aid or look for work is valid, he says, “to prevent an unreasonable burden falling on the national social assistance system”, adding that this rule “is consistent, with the EU legislature's intention”. (JK)