In a judgment handed down on Thursday 16 April (Case C-642/24), the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled that the Bavarian family allowance, the amount of which is indexed according to the country of residence of the beneficiary’s children, is contrary to EU law.
In Germany, people living in Bavaria can receive a family allowance for their child under the age of 3, in addition to the regional education allowance (€250 for the first two children, €300 from the third).
Relying on the regulations on the coordination of social security systems (883/2004) and the free movement of workers (492/2011), the European Commission disputes the fact that the amount of this family allowance differs for migrant workers whose children are permanently resident elsewhere in the EU. For example, for children living in Bulgaria, the Bavarian allowance is €125, and for those living in Lithuania, €187.50.
In its judgment, the Court of Justice welcomes the European Commission’s action against Germany for failure to fulfil obligations.
In accordance with case law (case C-328/20 - see EUROPE 12973/26), EU rules on the coordination of social security systems do not allow an EU public authority to make the amount of family benefits dependent on the child’s place of residence, where the granting of aid is independent from any individual assessment of needs.
Migrant workers must therefore be able to benefit from the social policies of the host Member State under the same conditions as national workers, insofar as they contribute to the financing of these policies through their tax and social security contributions.
In addition, the European Court ruled that the indexation at issue constituted indirect discrimination on grounds of nationality, contrary to the Regulation on the free movement of workers (492/2011). Discrimination such as this mainly affects migrant workers, whose children are more likely to reside in another EU country.
Similarly, the Court continued to state that since the payment of the allowance at issue was not linked to the economic and social environment of the children, that difference in treatment could not be justified by the objective of ensuring equal treatment of recipients by taking into account differences in living costs between Member States.
Read the judgment of the Court of Justice: https://aeur.eu/f/lkt (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)