Luxembourg, 14/07/2003 (Agence Europe) - In the Collins case, Advocate General Damaso Ruiz-Jarabo Colomer said Member States may impose residence requirements on the unemployed with the aim of verifying roots in the country and a connection with the labour market in the Member State in question to avoid abuse and what the Advocate General described as “social tourism”, by which he means moving around the EU to claim non-contributory benefits.
Brian Collins, who has double Irish and United States nationality, lived for almost a year in the UK before returning to the US. Twenty years later, in 1998, he went back to the UK to look for work. The British state refused to grant him the jobseeker's allowance on the grounds that he does not usually live in the UK.
Currently, EU law does not require the payment of welfare payments to EU citizens looking for work in Member States where they cannot justify roots or connections with the labour market, explained the Advocate General in a press release.