Brussels, 03/02/2015 (Agence Europe) - The Court of Justice of the EU is once again focusing on the issue pejoratively known as “social tourism” - less than three months after having ruled on this subject (Judgment C-333/13 - see EUROPE 11195). Although in the original situation, the case was a sort of ideal-type of abuse of social benefits, the new case (C-67/14), while similar, is fairly distinct because, on the one hand, the judges wanted to hear the arguments of each party and, on the other hand, they may give another interpretation of what social tourism practised by European citizens is, or is not.
The judgment handed down in November pleased everyone - London as well as the European right- and left-wing. The reason was that the Court of Justice of the EU only finally had the provisions of the EU Citizens Directive (2004/38/EC) followed to the letter in an example case, since it affected a person of Romanian nationality who has never worked or shown any desire to do so in the future, while wanting to receive German social benefits for job-seekers. In this case, the Court had thus ruled that EU citizens, who are economically inactive and who go to another member state with the sole aim of taking advantage of its social assistance, could be excluded from certain social benefits.
The new Court case concerns the same issue but is considerably different and less stereotyped. It involves a woman and her children who are all of Swedish nationality. She has lived in Germany since 2010, and worked there for a year before becoming unemployed. For a certain period she and her daughter received benefits to cover the subsistence costs of long-term unemployed people, while her two other children received benefits because of their inability to work.
The payment of all benefits was stopped by the German authorities as they considered that these benefits, which aim to ensure the means of survival, do not have the objective of facilitating access to the labour market, and that in these circumstances EU law permits the non-payment of benefits to job seekers. The German federal court for social disputes is now asking the Court of Justice of the EU if there can be absolute exclusion from social benefits when the right of a European citizen to stay results solely from the objective of finding a job. It is now up to Advocate General Melchior Wathelet to propose a response to this issue. Wathelet also had the opportunity to present conclusions to the Court in the previous social tourism case. (JK)