A Member State may not refuse to pay a family allowance for the child of the spouse of a frontier worker, since that allowance constitutes a social advantage and is therefore subject to the principle of equal treatment. This was the conclusion of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in a judgment delivered on Thursday 2 April (Case C-802/18).
In the context of a reference for a preliminary ruling submitted by Luxembourg’s Higher Social Security Board, the Court was asked, inter alia, to ascertain whether a family allowance linked to a frontier worker’s salaried employment in a Member State constitutes a social advantage, within the meaning of the regulation on freedom of movement for workers.
To that first question, the Court answered in the affirmative, stating that the concept of 'social advantage' in the case of workers who are nationals of other Member States includes all the advantages which are generally recognised for national workers, principally by reason of their objective status as workers or by mere fact of their residence on the national territory.
Second question to the Court: does EU law preclude a Member State from providing that frontier workers may receive a family allowance linked to the carrying out of salaried employment only in respect of their own children, to the exclusion of their spouse’s children with whom they have no parent-child relationship, whereas there is a right to receive that allowance in respect of all children resident in that Member State?
In order to reply, the Court begins by demonstrating, in the present case, the applicability of the Regulation on the coordination of social security systems. It also points out that the members of a migrant worker's family are indirect beneficiaries of the equal treatment accorded to that worker as regards social benefits under the Regulation on freedom of movement for workers.
According to the Court, the child of a frontier worker, who is able to benefit indirectly from those social advantages, means not only a child who has a child-parent relationship with that worker, but also a child of the spouse or registered partner of that worker, where that worker supports that child.
See the judgment: https://bit.ly/2JLa0ux (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)