Discriminating against families: Italian family benefits before the ECJ

 

 

Virginia Passalacqua, post-doctoral researcher in EU law, Utrecht University

 

In Italy, if you are a multimillionaire and you just had a baby, the State gives you 960 euros. However, if you are, say, the non-EU domestic employee of such a millionaire and you also just had a baby, the State gives you zero.

How is this possible? Thanks to Italian legislation that for 20 years has discriminated systematically against foreign families. No wonder, these families are also poorer compared to Italian ones: 25% of them were in absolute poverty in 2020, against 6% of Italian ones.

In July 2020, the issue of discriminatory criteria for access to family benefits arrived before the ECJ, thanks to a reference by the Italian Constitutional Court (ICC), currently pending (O.D. and others, C-350/20).

This is the fourth time that the ECJ is asked to assess Italian discriminatory criteria to access family benefits (after Martinez Silva, VR, and WS). But this time, the ECJ is called to interpret a new legal parameter: Art. 34.2 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU (the Charter). Can this be a game-changer?

The relevance of Art. 34.2 of the Charter has been questioned by commentators: admittedly, secondary norms are sufficient to declare the Italian law incompatible with EU law. Yet, it is argued that the ECJ should not miss this opportunity to clarify that migrants’ equal access to benefits is a fundamental right in the EU, providing guidance both to the Italian top Court and to the lawmaker.

 

The dispute before the ICC and the preliminary question

 

The facts of the case are rather simple. O.D. and seven other TCNs applied for family benefits, either assegno di maternità or bonus bebè, alias maternity and childbirth allowance.

The maternity allowance exists since 2001 and is granted to low-income women that do not receive a job-related maternity allowance. Instead, the childbirth allowance was introduced in 2014 to support families with a newborn. This was originally granted only to low-income families, but a 2019 amendment made all families eligible; still, the amount of the allowance varies according to their income (from 960 to 1920 euros p/y).

The Italian National Institute for Social Security (INPS) refused to grant O.D. and others the maternity and childbirth allowances because only Italian nationals, EU citizens, and TCN long-term residents are eligible under Italian law. Instead, the applicants are single permit holders: legally residing TCN workers whose status is regulated by the Single Permit Directive 2011/98/EU.

O.D and others challenged such refusal on the grounds that it entailed discrimination and was contrary to EU law. Indeed, Art. 12 of the Single Permit Directive imposes to Member States to grant single-permit holders equal treatment with nationals in several areas, including “branches of social security, as defined in Regulation (EC) No 883/2004”. They argued that the two allowances must be considered as social security and that they are equally entitled to them.

The applicants, supported by ASGI - a pro-migrant association, won all the proceedings against INPS before first and second-instance courts, until they reached the Italian Supreme Court. This decided to refer their cases to the ICC for a constitutionality assessment, which, in turn, decided to make a preliminary reference to the ECJ, under the consideration that this is an area “marked by the growing influence of EU law”.

The preliminary reference asks whether the childbirth and maternity allowances can be considered as branches of social security under Regulation 883/2004 so that they would fall in the scope of application of Art.12 Directive 2011/98 and Art. 34.2 of the Charter, which grants equal treatment to any legally resident person in matters of social security and social advantage.

I will tackle these issues in order.

 

Are the maternity and childbirth allowances to be considered as social security under Regulation 883/2004?

 

Arguably, EU law and case law leave little space for interpretation on this question. The ECJ has consistently held that to understand whether a benefit falls within the scope of Regulation 883/2004 we need to look at its “constituent elements”, i.e. “its purpose and the conditions for its grant, and not on whether it is classified as a social security benefit by national legislation” (UB C-447/18, at 22).

First, the benefit’s purpose must be related to one of the risks listed in Art. 3 of Regulation 883/2004, among which appear “maternity and equivalent paternity benefits” and “family benefits”, defined as “all benefits in kind or in cash intended to meet family expenses” (Art. 1).

Second, the benefit must be granted automatically on the basis of objective criteria, without any individual or discretionary evaluation of personal needs (Martinez Silva, at 22).

Both maternity and childbirth allowances are granted on the basis of objective criteria (i.e. income and the birth of a new child) and give economic support to families. They perfectly match the ECJ definition of social security, and this is why all first and second-instance Italian courts upheld the applicants’ view and granted them equal access to the allowances as required by Art. 12 of the Single Permit Directive.

INPS and the Italian government, however, advanced an exception in respect to the childbirth allowance. They argued that its goal is to incentivizing birthrate, rather than meeting family expenses; this would be confirmed by the fact that (from 2019) the childbirth allowance is a universal benefit, granted to all families and not only to low-income ones.

But this point too had already been addressed by the ECJ, in the case law on free movement of workers. In Reina, the Court assessed whether a German measure (“childbirth loan”) could be legitimately reserved to German nationals on the grounds that it was aimed “to make up the relative deficit in births among the German population in relation to the foreign population”.

Unsurprisingly, this chauvinistic argument did not convince the ECJ. The Court stated that the sole fact that a social measure pursues a demographic aim is not enough to exclude it from the scope of application of EU law and that social security and advantages must be granted equally to EU migrants (Reina at par 15; Commission v. Greece, C-185/96, at 34). Ironically enough, in the case of Reina the discriminated family was of Italian nationality.

 

Art. 34.2 of the Charter: a hollow hope or an added value?

 

As mentioned, the Italian Constitutional Court’s decision to invoke Art. 34.2 of the Charter was met with skepticism by commentators, who deemed it superfluous and of questionable relevance (Giubboni, 2021). This is because, as previously shown, secondary law is sufficient to declare unlawful the exclusion of single permit holders from the beneficiaries of the two allowances. So, does the Charter lack any added value?

Upon a closer look, the answer is no. Art. 34.2 of the Charter states:

Everyone residing and moving legally within the European Union is entitled to social security benefits and social advantages in accordance with Union law and national laws and practices.

This provision does present at least three important advantages. First, it refers to both social security and social advantages, while Art. 12 of the Single Permit Directive refers only to social security. Second, it grants equal treatment to all migrants residing legally, without making distinctions based on status. Third, it confers to the migrants’ right to equality a fundamental status in the EU.

The concreteness of the first two advantages is tempered by their limited scope of application (the Charter applies to Member States only when they implement EU law) and by their being subject to limitations under EU and national law. Instead, the third advantage, abstract as it is, is more significant.

In a context where even the European Social Charter grants migrants only limited access to social benefits (see Art. 19), the broad scope of Art. 34.2 sounds revolutionary. This confirms that, despite the (often valid) criticisms against the restrictive EU migration policy, fighting discrimination against migrants is a hallmark of the EU.

Indeed, the ECJ has fought discrimination against (EU and TCN) migrants for decades, pioneering the idea that equality is a necessary precondition for inclusion and integration (Kamberaj, at 90).

The case of O.D. and Others offers the ECJ the opportunity to clarify the fundamental nature of the principle of equal access to benefits for TCN migrants, which so far has been relegated to an ‘ordinary legislative function’ (Muir, 2020, at 121). This would pursue not only a rhetorical function, but it would provide guidance amidst a very confusing “polycentric” adjudication practice (Kilpatrick, 2014).

Especially in Italy, national courts have suffered from a lack of uniform interpretation when adjudicating migrants’ equal treatment (also because of the ‘dual preliminarity’ controversy, Lazzerini 2020). And the ICC denounced this situation in its reference: “The sheer number of pending disputes is testament to the serious uncertainty concerning the meaning to be ascribed to EU law.”

Moreover, Italian norms in many parts contain discriminatory provisions against migrants, and a current proposal to reform family benefits features again discriminatory selection criteria, despite a pending Commission infringement on the matter.

The ECJ evaded its obligation to interpret Art. 34.2 once (in the case of UB, C-447/18). This time, it should state clearly that migrants’ equal access to benefits is a fundamental principle of the Union, sending a powerful message to the Italian Constitutional Court and the Italian lawmaker.

 

Conclusion

 

The preliminary reference in the case of O.D. and Others speaks of an alarming phenomenon. In Italy, TCN families in need have been denied equal access to social benefits for decades, and the childbirth allowance reached a low point in this respect: it is universally granted to all but to TCN migrants.

Against this background, the preliminary reference in the case of O.D. and Others offers an important opportunity. The ECJ has a long tradition of fighting discrimination and constitutionalizing equality. In the case of O.D. and Others, its ruling can acquire erga omnes effect thanks to the follow-up ICC judgment.

The EU Court should not miss this opportunity for stating out and loud that equality is a fundamental principle of the EU also when it comes to TCN migrants, which cannot be disposed of by the erratic will of the government of the day.

 

Barnard & Peers: chapter 26

JHA4: chapter I:6

Photo Credit: Guiseppe Milo, via Wikimedia Commons

Unemployment, residence rights, social benefits at three crossroads in the Tarola ruling

Francesca Strumia, Senior Lecturer, University of Sheffield School of Law*

*This post draws in part on research supported by a Research Fellowship at the Collegio Carlo Alberto in Torino

Overview

Last week’s CJEU ruling in Tarola, responding to a preliminary reference from the Irish Court of Appeal, interprets yet another cryptic provision of the Citizenship Directive, art. 7(3) on retention of worker status. The ruling sits at the intersection of EU law on free movement of workers, and on free movement of citizens. It is about rights descending from the status of worker. Yet it concerns the situation of unemployed persons at the periphery of workers’ status, whose condition stretches into citizenship territory. For these reasons, the case provided an opportunity for the Court to blend the assertive approach of its case law on workers with the cautious attitude it has adopted in its recent case law on non-economically active citizens. The resulting judgment adds yet another chapter to the tormented story of access to social benefits in the context of free movement.

Analysis

Mr. Tarola, a Romanian national, worked in Ireland in either an employed or self-employed capacity for several periods of a few weeks each in 2007, 2013 and 2014. In 2013 and 2014 he applied there for jobseeker’s and welfare allowances. His applications were refused on the ground that absent proof of ability for self-support and absent a sufficiently long employment record he had not demonstrated habitual residence in Ireland. In the resulting litigation, Mr. Tarola argued that he had the right to reside in Ireland for the six months following a two-week period of employment in July 2014 under art. 7(3)(c) of the Citizenship Directive. The argument did not convince the High Court, however it raised attention at the Court of Appeals that referred to the CJEU.

The referred question revolved around the interpretation of article 7(3)(c). More precisely, paraphrasing Advocate General Szpunar, the question was whether a Union citizen who works in another Member States for two weeks otherwise than on a fixed-term contract and then becomes involuntarily unemployed retains the status of worker and the right to residence that comes with that status.

Article 7(3)(c) of the Citizenship Directive is particularly convoluted. It provides for the retention of the status of worker for no less than six months in two hypotheses not clearly distinguished until yesterday’s ruling. The first situation is fairly straightforward: duly recorded unemployment following termination of a fixed-term contract of less than a year in duration. The second is more nebulous. The text refers in this respect to a person having ‘become involuntarily unemployed during the first twelve months’ and having registered as a job-seeker. The court found in particular that the text left two aspects undetermined: (i)  the type of activity or contract in whose context a person became involuntarily unemployed and 2) the context of the ‘first twelve months’ phrase, whether first twelve months of any employment contract, of a fixed-term contract, of residence in the host Member State, or else (par. 35). 

The court’s solution was that the provision allows retention of the status for workers “in all situations in which a worker has been obliged, for reasons beyond his control, to stop working in the host Member State before one year has elapsed, regardless of the nature of the activity or the type of employment contract entered into for that purpose”. (par 48) This interpretation was drawn from the context, purpose and origin of the provision of art. 7(3)(c).

With regard to context, the court noted that the provision sits within article 7, providing overall for the right of residence, and its retention, for all those who have exercise an activity in an employed or self-employed capacity. As affirmed in Prefeta, retention of that right is granted on the assumption that the citizen is available and able to re-enter the labor market within a reasonable period. (par 39-40) The court added that, within the broader context of the gradation of the right to residence that the Citizenship Directive operates, article 7(3) establishes a gradation also for retention of the status of worker. This gradation is based among others on reasons for inability to work and on the initial duration of the period of activity. On the top grade are those citizens who are unable to work because of accident or illness, because of undertaking vocational training, and because of having remained involuntarily unemployed after having worked for at least one year. All of these retain the status without time limits. On a lower grade are those who have worked for less than one year and who can retain the status for as long as the Member States like, provided this is not less than six months. (par 43-45)

In terms of purpose, the court observed that the offered interpretation of art. 7(3)(c) satisfied the general objective of the EU Citizenship Directive, namely strengthening the right of movement and residence, without undermining its further objective of protecting the Member States’ finances from undue burdens. The interpretation was also consistent with the specific objective of article 7(3) of the Directive, described in previous case law (e.g. Gusa) as that of protecting the right of residence of persons “who are in the absence of work due to circumstances beyond their control”. (par 49-50)

Finally as to the origins of art. 7(3)(c) the court found that its reading of the provision mirrored the intention of the drafters. The travaux preparatoires indicated indeed that the second part of art. 7(3)(c) had been added in the draft directive so as to extend protection to workers in involuntary unemployment after less than a year regardless of the type of contract covering their activity. (par 53)

The ruling concluded with a dictum inspired by the AG opinion and with a note to the referring court.  The dictum is that persons residing on the basis of the Citizenship Directive, including those retaining the right to reside under art 7(3), are entitled to equal treatment with nationals. Hence if national workers who have worked only for a short period of time are excluded from social benefits, the exclusion applies also to migrant EU citizen workers. The note to the referring court was that it was accordingly for it to determine, in light of national law, whether Mr Tarola was entitled, under the principle of equal treatment, to the social benefits he was seeking.

Comment

At least three aspects in this judgment are worthy of note. A first one is the way the court treats the citizenship directive. A second one is the court’s note on entitlement to social assistance. A further one is the balancing exercise the ruling performs between protection of movement and residence rights and protection of state finances. These elements, respectively, help situate the judgment at three crossroads: the one between the law on free movement of workers, and the law on free movement of citizens; the one between EU law on equal treatment, and national law on welfare assistance; and the one between competing objectives pursued by EU free movement law.

With regard to the Citizenship Directive, the court sticks to the rule of interpretation it promises up front. The directive cannot be interpreted restrictively. And indeed the court offers a quite broad interpretation of its relevant provision. That the provisions of the Citizenship Directive require broad interpretation is no novelty. The court has repeated this rule of interpretation again and again in several cases. Yet in recent years it has not always as enthusiastically applied the same rule (a recent example is the SM case, treated here; a slightly older one is Singh and others).  The court’s approach in Tarola is the result of a special conjuncture: the court is de facto ruling on the rights of a non-economically active citizen, but it is formally dealing with a worker-it is not in question indeed that Mr. Tarola meets the EU law definition of worker (par. 25)-. This allows the court to intersect, if not the law, the interpretive approaches belonging to two different strands of its case law: the assertiveness of its case law on workers, and the caution of its recent case law on non-economically active citizens.  Echoes of the former allow the court to deliver, from a relative comfort zone, a result that bears on the social protection of Union citizens.

The caution that characterizes the case law on non-economically active returns, on the other hand, through the court’s drawing of a clear boundary between right to equal treatment and entitlement to social assistance. In the final dictum, the court emphasizes that the right attached to a worker’s, or citizen’s, right to residence, is one of equal treatment. Retention of the status of worker, and of the corresponding right to reside, does not necessarily mean entitlement to obtain social assistance. It simply means entitlement to apply for it, and obtain the same response as a national would get. This sounds as a reminder, and a word of reassurance, to the Member States that they are free to organize their welfare systems as they wish. At the same time the court gives the Member States a gentle nudge: if they do not like paying benefits to those who have worked too little, they had better say so in national law.

The gentle nudge to the Member States ultimately reflects the court’s endeavor to take into account, and balance in Tarola, two competing objectives of the Citizenship Directive. One is the objective of strengthening the right to move and reside for all Union citizens (witness to the case standing at the crossroads of workers and citizenship law, the court refers in reporting those objectives to citizens in one sentence, to workers in the next, par 49-50). The other is the objective to ensure that the Member States’ social security and social assistance systems are not placed under an undue burden. The tension between these two objectives underpins the entire case law on social benefits provision in the context of free movement. This brings the Tarola ruling closer to the line of cases that from Trojani descends to Dano and its progeny. The tension in that case law, however, is not always as clearly acknowledged and as carefully addressed as here. In this respect, Tarola might signal a further turn in a doctrine that has experienced several twists. It may be the first sign of the taking on, on the part of the court, of a more coherent role in reconciling the conflicting objectives of the law on free movement.

Barnard & Peers: chapter 13

Photo credit: BIMIreland.ie

CJEU case law on EU citizenship: normatively consistent? Unlikely! - A response to Davies’ ‘Has the Court changed, or have the cases?’

Alexander Hoogenboom, PhD, MSc. LL.M. Senior Policy Officer at the Dutch Healthcare Authority and associate researcher at the Institute for Transnational and Euregional cross border cooperation and Mobility, Faculty of law, Maastricht University. The position taken in this paper solely reflects the views of the author.

Introduction

Recent case law of the Court of Justice on EU citizens’ access to benefits has been seen by some as a restrictive turn compared to prior case law, in response to a rise in populism. However, the article by Davies in a recent special issue of the Journal of European Public Policy is to be commended for its original take on this alleged ‘turn to restrictiveness’. The goal of his article is, as I see it, questioning whether the Court has indeed recently become stricter (in the sense of more State-friendly, less Union citizen-friendly) in response to the populist turn in the European political landscape. In that vein, Davies submits, contrary to what he sees is the main thrust in the scholarship, that the court has been ‘normatively consistent’ (see also this research paper he authored) and that the perceived difference in recent litigation outcomes from the golden years of Union citizenship are due to the litigants being less ‘deserving’ of access to benefits provided by the host Member State: ‘what goes in will provide an overwhelmingly plausible explanation of the outcomes on its own’.

This argument is supported by relying on a methodology for measuring the ‘deservedness’ of the litigants based on a set of indicators: the ‘good behaviour’ of the applicant, the possibility for exceptional harm should the benefit be denied, the possible cost to society resulting from the grant of a benefit (e.g. because it is long-term or applies to a large category of persons), whether granting the benefit would mandate a particular positive outcome and whether the State was somehow at fault for the specific conundrum that the litigant finds him or herself in.  The more ‘deserving’ (high contribution to society, low cost), the greater the likelihood of a litigant-positive result.

Applying these criteria to a selection of case law, Davies proceeds to show that indeed, the Dano’s (never worked, never integrated, lacked resources for self-support) of the world seem to be less deserving of benefits than the Sala’s (long-term legal resident, child benefit denied due to a technicality by an inconsistent state). (On the Dano case – the first judgment showing the perceived turn toward a stricter approach – see the discussion here).

There are, however, a few issues one could take with this approach. In part, it is questionable whether the facts as available to scholars of EU law decisions allow one to accurately apply the proposed test – especially given that the publication of the Reports for the Hearing was abolished since 2012 (see also para 119 of the AG opinion in Breyer). This is exacerbated, as Davies admits, by the fact that a negative outcome throws its shadow forwards: one then tends to present the facts in such a way as to support the later conclusion.

In part, it is questionable whether deservedness is objectively verifiable: after all, one could also argue that the rise of populism or say an economic crisis – the ‘times we live in’ – simply provide a different kind of lens through which to view the migratory Union citizen. The same fresh-faced youth enrolling in higher education in a Member State different from the one of his nationality can be cast as a self-improving, future productive member of that society (compare to Gravier, para 24) or as a welfare-abusing, locust-like creature eating his or her fill and subsequently returning from whence he or she came (see the main arguments by Belgium and Austria in the the judgment in Bressol).

However, the main challenge I would like to level is that the methodology suggested is applied to an incomplete ‘data set’ (the cases), in part due to selection bias (the focus in the article on the cases ‘most discussed’).

Grzelczyk by another name: The curious case of Förster

The case of Grzelczyk is among those used by Davies to support his thesis: his particular circumstances ‘paint a sympathetic picture’. A hard-working young Frenchman, resident in Belgium for some time and whose claim to financial support finish his last few months of study would seem altogether reasonable. Indeed, the Court, while leaving it to the national court to make the final decision, seemed to suggest he should be so entitled.

Nonetheless, the Court was not so generous in Förster. Jacqueline Förster was a German national who grew up in a town not far from the Dutch border. She moved to and resided in the Netherlands from March 2000 onwards – partly to be with her Dutch boyfriend. There, she enrolled into a teacher training programme and later in a course on educational theory at the Hogeschool van Amsterdam. In the period 2000-2002 she undertook various part-time jobs, until she engaged in full-time paid practical training at a Dutch school providing secondary education for children with special needs (October 2002 – June 2003). After her practical training she did not engage in gainful employment until July 2004. She graduated from her course that summer.

At stake was the intermezzo period: the Dutch Student Benefit Authority (then called IB-Groep) assessed in 2005 that she had not been eligible for study maintenance assistance in the second half of 2003 and ordered her to repay the amounts received.

It would seem to me that Ms. Förster ticked practically the same as mr. Grzelczyk. Measuring her ‘deservedness’ according to the matrix suggested by Davies we find:

-       Good behaviour: self-support initially (three years), enrolled in studies and contributing to Dutch society even during her studies in her practical training period. Advocate-General Mazàk moreover made the explicit point that she did not seem to have moved with the goal of claiming benefits.

-       Exceptional harm: Although the withdrawal of the benefit was retroactive, when assessing her right to access the benefit as matters stood in 2003 one could plausibly maintain that, as with Grzelczyk, non-access to the benefit would have made the completion of the degree much more difficult.

-       The support requested covered only a limited time: at issue was a six-month period only.

-       Limited cost of the support: As with Grzelczyk, this aspect is hard to estimate.

-       Positive outcomes: the completion of the degree would enable her to contribute to Dutch society and economy as a teacher.

-       State at fault: One could make the argument that given the fact that they had initially granted her the benefit and only much later (some one and a half years) took the final decision to recover the amount, should count against the Dutch state.

Finally, in addition to these elements from Davies’ deservedness matrix, the applicant had a relationship with a Dutch national and given her work, presumably, spoke fluent Dutch – both elements that the Court in other cases has found relevant when assessing eligibility to benefits (see Prinz and Seeberger, for instance).

All in all, one would assume, from the methodology applied that this applicant should be successful, or that should have led to a ‘discretionary-result-with-a-hint-in-favour-of-the applicant’. Yet, she categorically lost her case, notwithstanding the suggestion by the Advocate-General to consider the circumstances of the case along the lines suggested above. Yes, the conclusion was (partly) mandated by the EU citizens’ Directive 2004/38, but the Court certainly did not ‘bend over backwards to find exceptions to [this] restriction’ as his matrix would predict.

The big turnaround: Commission v Austria and Commission v the Netherlands

The cases of Commission v Austria and Commission v the Netherlands are perhaps even more glaring. The issue concerned a travel benefit aimed at students attending higher education. In the Austrian case, decided in 2012, Austria argued that it could refuse access to the benefit where the Union citizen in question had not yet obtained a right to permanent residence (a five-year prior residence requirement in practice). In contrast, the Court found that all persons enrolled in higher education should have automatic access.

The case is somewhat hard to fit into the matrix, but intuitively one could argue that the Court was not swayed by the hypothetical good behaviour of potential beneficiaries (no prior residence requirements, no integration), nor was the benefit for a limited time (it could last the entire study period), all persons enrolled in higher education persons were eligible (no ‘limited costs’) and it is hard to imagine an ‘exceptional harm’ had the benefit been denied to the hypothetical applicant. Notwithstanding this apparent lack of deservedness, however, a positive outcome for the hypothetical beneficiaries.

In 2016, in Commission v the Netherlands, the Court reached the opposite conclusion. The benefit at issue was in all respects the same as at stake in Commission v Austria (Table taken from A. Hoogenboom, Balancing Student Mobility Rights and National Higher Education Autonomy in the European Union (BRILL, 2017)):

	Austria	The Netherlands
Nature of the benefit	Fee reduction for the use of public transport (grant)	Free use of public transport on some days of the week; reduced fees on the other days (conditional grant)
Apparent purpose	To facilitate access to education	To facilitate access to education
Provision	Commercial public transport operators	Commercial public transport operators
Financing	The individual governments of several Länder	Central Dutch government
Recipient	Student	Student
Eligibility	Enrolment higher education Parents in receipt of Austrian family allowances	Enrolment in higher education. Student in receipt of Dutch studiefinanciering

Here the Court decided that the Netherlands could restrict the benefit along the terms suggested by Austria in the earlier case. It stretched the limits of consistency by trying to distinguish the latter case with a bizarre reference to the difference in national classification of the benefit, despite it being settled case law that such classifications are irrelevant - a point the Court itself made in Commission v Austria.

So here we initially have a judgment against the State and in favour of the Union citizen, whereas the matrix would likely predict a judgment in favour of the State. Four years later the Court came, on largely the same facts, to the opposite conclusion. This should not be seen as a (late) vindication of the matrix however, since the Court formally distinguished the latter case from the former, meaning that both cases continue to be good law.

Conclusion

Whereas the line of inquiry presented in Davies’ paper is an interesting one, it cannot account adequately account for the existence of Förster and the Commission v Austria/Netherlands saga. Apparently deserving applicants get rejected, and the same benefit with a similar hypothetical user base gets a different legal treatment in the space of a few years. Two possible explanations suggest themselves:

-       The Court is not consistent. This would mean that Davies’ hypothesis is disproven.

-       The matrix presented, by which the court supposedly measures deservedness, is flawed. This goes to the methodology used and means that we simply haven’t found calculus that the Court uses.

It would seem to me that the existence of both Commission v Austria and Commission v the Netherlands as ‘good law’ seems to hint at the former. In any case, however, to argue that the Court of Justice is normatively consistent, on the basis of the analysis carried out by Davies, is a bridge too far.

Barnard & Peers: chapter 13

Photo credit: i newspaper

Can Member States seize asylum-seekers’ assets?

Kees Groenendijk (Professor Emeritus, Radboud University Nijmegen) and Steve Peers

In recent days, several EU and non-EU countries have been in the news for taking asylum-seekers' assets upon arrival. Is this compatible with EU law? We examine first of all national practice, then the legislative history of the relevant EU rules, then reach our conclusions.  

Denmark

In November 2015 the Danish government presented among a catalogue of 34 measures to discourage people from seeking asylum in Denmark, to introduce the possibility to confiscate cash, jewellery and other assets of asylum seekers in other to make them contribute in the costs of their reception. They proposal caused heated debate after a Minister suggested that wedding rings could be also confiscated. In January the Social-Democratic Party voiced that it would only support this proposal of the centre-right minority government, only assets above 1,340 euro could be confiscated. The new law is to be voted on 26 January.

Similar practices or rules are to be found in the national law of other Member States.

Switzerland, only few asylum seekers concerned

According to Dutch newspapers, Swiss legislation requires asylum seekers who enter the country with more than 1,000 Swiss francs have report and hand over the surplus to the Swiss authorities. The rule only covers money, not other valuables such as personal jewellery. Of the 45,000 asylum seekers coming to Switzerland in 2015, only 112 had to hand in a surplus, totalling around € 150,000 that year. Not really an impressive amount. Most asylum seekers, apparently, do not carry large amounts of money, once they arrive in Western Europe. Besides, under Swiss law beneficiaries of protection with income from employment, have to pay 10% of that income to contribute to reception costs during ten years.

Germany, an old practice?

The German legislation on reception of asylum seekers, the Asylbewerberleistungsgesetz, provides, already several decades that asylum seekers can be forced to contribute from their own assets and income to the cost of their reception. Asylum seekers have to declare their assets and income. The rules for applicant for public social assistance are applicable. From the assets only 200 euro and the goods necessary for exercising a profession or employment are exempted (§ 7(5) of the law). German national TV news reported on 21 January 2016 that in Bavaria asylum seekers were asked by the police to hand over their cash in excess of €750. In Baden-Wurttemberg the threshold is €350. The federal law leaves room for difference in application between the Lander. A spokesman of the Baden-Wurttemberg minister of integration stated that although cash was taken from refugees in individual cases following police spot-checks, searches are not carried out on every refugee. He was quoted as saying "In the context of a general police check it was established that individual refugees had cash with them" and "Refugees are not being systematically searched for cash or valuables".

Netherlands, only contributions from income not from assets

The Junior Minister for Immigration recently told the press that that he was not going to follow the Danish and German example and force asylum seekers to hand over small amounts of cash and jewellery. His spokesman explained this is not on the agenda right now, since we do not expect that it will reduce the influx.” (Volkrant 23 January 2016) Already for decades asylum seekers in the Netherlands if lawfully employed (only possible after six months and until an asylum status is acquired for 24 weeks per year only) have to pay the surplus above 185 euro of his monthly income as a contribution in reception costs.

Compatible with EU law?

Are such rules and practices on seizure of assets in order to contribute in reception costs compatible with EU law, and especially with the Reception Conditions Directive 2013/33? We do not deal here with the question whether such confiscation of valuables and jewellery is compatible with Article 1 of the First Protocol and Article 8 ECHR.

The relevant provisions are to be found in Article 17(3) and (4) of the 2013 recast Reception Conditions Directive, reading:

“3.   Member States may make the provision of all or some of the material reception conditions and health care subject to the condition that applicants do not have sufficient means to have a standard of living adequate for their health and to enable their subsistence.

4.   Member States may require applicants to cover or contribute to the cost of the material reception conditions and of the health care provided for in this Directive, pursuant to the provision of paragraph 3, if the applicants have sufficient resources, for example if they have been working for a reasonable period of time.

If it transpires that an applicant had sufficient means to cover material reception conditions and health care at the time when those basic needs were being covered, Member States may ask the applicant for a refund.”

Identical provisions were already present in Article 13(3) and (4) of the original Reception Conditions Directive 2003/9. They returned unchanged in the 2013 recast of the Directive. In order to understand those provisions it may be useful to have a short look at their legislative history. The various drafts are set out in more detail in the Annex, but we will summarise them here.

Legislative history of EU rules on financial contributions by asylum seekers

The Commission in its proposal for the original 2003 Directive (COM(2001)181) inserted an Article 19 on financial contributions. Member States could require applicants who can afford to do so to contribute to the cost of their material reception conditions. The relevant decisions should be taken individually, objectively and impartially and reasons shall be given. An effective judicial remedy against such decisions should be available, making explicit reference to Article 47 EU Charter.

During the first negotiations on this Article reaction eight Member States made proposals for amendments. Six Member States proposed to refer to “the general principle of the real need of the applicant, which would lead to entitlement to material benefits” (document 11320/01, p. 33). Germany proposed that “some of the applicant's income should be protected in all cases”. That proposal only covered the asylum seeker’s income. But it implied that all the income above a certain threshold could be seized by a Member State. The Netherlands made a similar proposal linking the asylum seeker’s contribution to his income: “if the applicant has a certain income, a contribution may be asked of him to cover some or all of the costs”. Both proposals intended to regulate a possibly contribution in reception costs, but did not include the asylum seekers’ assets as an object of seizure.

In January 2002 the text of Article 19 was consolidated with two other Articles in a new Article 18, entitled ‘Financial means test’ (document 5300/02). The Dutch proposal, concerning contribution out of income from employment was included. The German proposal, implying that a Member State could seize all income above a certain fixed threshold, did not find its way in this and later versions of provisions on financial contributions by asylum seekers. During the negotiations in February 2002 this Article was considerably shortened (a.o. replacing the general means test by the condition that the applicants do not have sufficient means to cover their basic needs, and deleting the reference to income from employment) and it was renumbered Article 17 (document 6253/02). Only three Member States made suggestions: Portugal and Greece pleaded for more reduction of the reception conditions, once an asylum seeker or his family member had been allowed access to the labour market. Germany proposed to integrate Article 17 in the general Article on material reception conditions.

Early March 2002, the Asylum Working Party examined the amended proposal based on drafting suggestions from the Spanish Presidency (document 6906/02). Parts of the former Article 17 were now included in Article 13, apparently following German suggestion.

In April 2002 on suggestion of Germany the words “and health care” were added in par. 3 of Article 13. Moreover, the words “for example if they have been working for a reasonable period of time” were added in par. 4, re-introducing an explicit link with participation in the labour market again (document 7802/02). This version of Article 13 of the amended proposal was accepted by Coreper and by the Council in 2002 and became part of the Directive adopted with unanimity on 27 January 2003.

In addition, the 2013 recast Directive now states that Member States can refuse or withdraw benefits if asylum-seekers have ‘concealed financial resources’ (Article 20 of the 2013 Directive). The CJEU, in its CIMADE and GISTI judgment, has ruled that Article 20 sets out an exhaustive list of grounds for reducing or withdrawing benefits.

Analysis

If this legislative history is combined with the general principles of EU law and the EU Charter, we conclude:

(1) The issue of financial contributions by asylum seekers in material reception costs from their own means was been discussed repeatedly during the negotiations on the Directive.

(2) This issue was discussed repeatedly also in relation to the access of asylum seekers to the labour market in the Member State and the income derived from such employment.

(3) The Directive allows Member States to impose a means test for access to material reception conditions, but this does not entail confiscation of assets. The test is not whether the asylum seeker has more than a certain fixed amount of money or assets, but whether the asylum seeker does have sufficient means to have a standard of living adequate for his health and to enable his subsistence.

(4) Since (a) the issue of financial contributions by asylum seekers in material reception costs is covered by the directive and (b) the Directive sets out minimum standards in order to avoid second movements between Member State (recitals 7 and 8), Member States are not allowed to apply less favourable rules only more favourable rules (see recital 15); the Court of Justice repeatedly held that Member States cannot introduce other conditions than those provided for in the EU Directive or Regulation, see the judgments in Ben Alaya, Koushkaki and Air Baltic. Also, by analogy with the CIMADE and GISTI ruling, the grounds in the Directive to refuse or regulate access to benefits are surely exhaustive.

(5) Article 13(3) allows Member States to make the grant of material reception conditions and health care subject to the condition that applicants do not have sufficient means to have a standard of living adequate for their health and to enable their subsistence. It follows that such decision to exclude an asylum seeker from material reception conditions can only be made after the Member State first has established that applicants have sufficient means to have a standard of living adequate for their health and to enable their subsistence in the Member State. In accordance with the general principle of proportionality in EU law, it is questionable whether a Member State could refuse any access to the benefits system, just because an asylum-seeker has a small amount of cash or valuables. Access should only be refused where the applicant either has an ongoing alternative source of funds, or the asylum-seeker has so much wealth that he or she could live off it for a considerable period of time.

(6) Article 13(4) allows Member States to require applicants to contribute to the cost of the material reception conditions and of the health care, when the applicants have sufficient resources. The conditions of paragraph 3 explicitly apply here as well. The Commission with regard to Article 19 of its proposal rightly stated: “Decisions on applicants’ contribution should be taken individually, objectively and impartially and reasons must be given if they are negative in order to make possible their review as accurate as possible.”

While, in the final version of the Directive this clause applies to the reduction or withdrawal of benefits, not the obligation to contribute toward costs, the general principles of EU law still require that national administrative decisions linked to EU law must be fair (see the CJEU’s YS and M and S ruling on asylum procedures, discussed here; and the Mukarubega and Boudjliba judgments on the return of irregular migrants, discussed here). This means that any decision on asylum-seekers’ contributions has to be an individual decision giving reasons, taking into consideration the individual situation of each asylum seeker.

Such decisions must also comply with other general principles of Union law, in particular the principle of proportionality, which means that any confiscation of property must be necessary to achieve a genuine government end. It is hard to see how it is necessary to confiscate property when a less severe measure (delaying or curtailing benefit payments by an equivalent amount, in accordance with the rules on a means test) could achieve the same objective. Again, the principle suggests that asylum-seekers should only be required to contribute where applicants either have an ongoing alternative source of funds, or have so much wealth that they could live off it for a considerable period of time.

It must also be possible to challenge any decision made by a national authority on confiscation, in accordance with Article 47 (the right to an effective remedy) of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights.

(7) In conclusion: a national rule allowing authorities to confiscate all means of an asylum seeker above a fixed amount, irrespective of the individual circumstance on the grounds mentioned in point 4 and 6 above is not compatible with Union law.

(8) Of course, Denmark and Switzerland are not bound by the Directive, Denmark because of its opt-out and Switzerland because it is not a Member State. Ireland opted out as well. But all other Members State are bound by Directive 2013/33 and the UK is opted in and is bound by the original Reception Conditions Directive 2003/9.

*The paragraph on Germany was amended on 27th January 2016 to add further detail.
Barnard & Peers: chapter 26

JHA4: chapter I:5

Photo: Danish police officer and asylum-seeker

Photo credit: www.channelnewsasia.com

Annex

Legislative history of Article 13(3) and (4) of Directive 2003/9 = Article 17(3) and (4) of Directive 2013/33 on financial contributions by asylum seekers in reception costs

In the Commission’s proposal for the original 2003 Directive COM(2001)181 there was a separate Article 19 reading:

Article 19

Financial contribution

1. Member States may require applicants who can afford to do so to contribute to the cost of

their material reception conditions or to cover it. Decisions to provide material reception

conditions not free of charge shall be taken individually, objectively and impartially and

reasons shall be given.

2. Member States shall ensure that applicants have the right to bring proceedings before a court against the decisions referred to in paragraph 1 and that they have access to legal assistance.

The Explanatory Memorandum to this Article 19 read:

“This Article concerns the financial contribution applicants for asylum may be asked to

provide if they are provided with material reception conditions.

(1) This paragraph allows Member States to require applicants who can afford it to contribute

to the cost of their material reception conditions. The purpose is to meet the Council’s

concern regarding the requirement of “inadequate” resources of the applicants for

asylum. In any case Member States should ensure that applicants for asylum have the

possibility of being housed as even applicants with sufficient financial means might find

it impossible to find suitable housing. Decisions on applicants’ contribution should be

taken individually, objectively and impartially and reasons must be given if they are

negative in order to make possible their review as accurate as possible.

(2) In conformity with the Charter of fundamental rights (Article 47) and in line with the

case law of the Court of Justice, this paragraph ensures that the decisions taken according

to paragraph 1 can be reviewed by a judicial body (including an administrative judicial

body such as the Conseil d’Etat in France) at least in the last instance.”

The first reaction of Member States on this Article was in document 11320/01, p. 33:

“D/E/NL/P/S and UK: reference should be made to the general principle of the real

need of the applicant, which would lead to entitlement to material benefits.

D: some of the applicant's income should be protected in all cases.

NL: stipulate that if the applicant has a certain income, a contribution may be asked of him

to cover some or all of the costs.

D and UK: establish a general principle laying down that Member States may decide

whether or not the applicant requires material benefits.

L and A: make provision for the case in which an applicant is invited to stay in the territory

of a Member State by a national who, if applicable, has served as guarantor for the purpose

of obtaining a tourist visa. In this case, it should be possible to call on the national to

contribute to the costs.

A: reservation on the second sentence in that it creates an obligation to notify these

decisions in writing.

3 A and S: reservation on the financial aspects of legal assistance.

D and UK: a general provision on forms of appeal at the beginning of the Directive should

be sufficient.

In January 2002 the text of Article 19 was consolidated in a new Article 18, consolidating several provisions of the proposal (document 5300/02):

“Article 18 (consolidating Articles 14 bis, 15(4) and 19)

Financial means test

1. Member States may make the grant of all or some of the material reception conditions,

as well as the requirement that applicants and their accompanying family members

cover or contribute to the cost thereof, subject to a financial means test of applicants and

their accompanying family members in accordance with the provisions of this Article.

2. Member States may also reduce or withdraw material reception conditions within a

reasonable period after applicants or their accompanying family members commence an

employment activity in accordance with Article 13, applying the test established in

paragraph 1.

3. Applicants and their accompanying family members may be subject to one or more of

the measures provided for in paragraphs 1 and 2 when it is confirmed that they have

sufficient means.

4. Decisions under this Article shall be taken individually, objectively and impartially and

reasons shall be given.”

In February 2002 this Article was considerably shortened (a.o. deleting the means test and the reference to income from employment) and renumbered as Article 17, reading together with the footnote by Member States and the Commission (document 6253/02):

“Article 17 (formerly 18)1

Financial means criteria

1. Member States may make the grant of all or some of the material reception conditions subject to the condition that applicants do not have sufficient means to cover their basic needs.

2. If it transpires that an applicant had sufficient means to cover these basic needs at the time

when material reception conditions were being provided, then Member States may ask these

to refund.2

3. Decisions under this Article shall be taken individually, objectively and impartially and

reasons shall be given. 3

1 D : this provision should be placed at the end of Article 15.

2 P, supported by EL, suggested adding the following :

"3. Member States may also reduce or withdraw material reception conditions within a

reasonable period after applicants and their accompanying family members have been

allowed access to the labour market in accordance with Article 13, applying the test

established in paragraph 1.

4. In the cases referred to in paragraph 3, if they are not financially independent, Member

States shall grant them the food allowance mentioned in Article 8 and access to basic

social care."

(present paragraph 3 would become 5).

3 Cion : reinsert a paragraph which was included in 12839/01 ASILE 49 (former

Article 14A(6)) :

"Member States shall ensure that before the decisions referred to in paragraph 2 are notified to

the applicants for asylum [and their accompanying family members] the other Articles of

Chapter III of this Directive are applied".

At its meeting on 5 and 6 March 2002, the Asylum Working Party examined the amended proposal based on drafting suggestions from the Spanish Presidency, document 6906/02. Parts of the former Article 17 were now included in Article 13, apparently following the suggestion made before by Germany with regard to that former Article 17.

Article 13

General rules1

1. Member States shall ensure that material reception conditions are available to applicants when they make their application.

2. Member States shall make provisions on material reception conditions to ensure a standard of living adequate for the health and the well-being of applicants.

Member States shall ensure that standard of living is met in the specific situation of persons

who have special needs, in accordance with Article 17, as well as in relation to the situation of

persons who are in detention.

3. Member States may make the grant of all or some of the material reception conditions subject to the condition that applicants do not have sufficient means to have a standard of living adequate for their health and well-being.2

4. Member States may require applicants to cover or contribute to the cost of the material

reception conditions and of the health care provided for in this Directive, pursuant to the

provision of paragraph 3, when the applicants have sufficient resources.

5. Material reception conditions may be provided in kind, or in the form of financial allowances or vouchers or in a combination of these provisions.

Where Member States provide material reception conditions in the form of allowances or

vouchers, their amount shall be set in accordance with the principles set for in this Article.

1 A : a general rule providing for exceptions to be applied by Member States in extraordinary

situations should be introduced.

2 B, D, F and P : the term "well-being" is s too vague and should be defined.

NL, S, UK : say "to enable their subsistence" instead of "to have a standard of living adequate

for their health and well-being".

In April 2002 on suggestion of Germany the words “and health care” were added in par. 3. Besides the words “for example if they have been working for a reasonable period of time” were added in par. 4, introducing an explicit link with participation in the labour market again (document 7802/02).

This version of Article 13 of the amended proposal was accepted by Coreper and by the Council. It became part of the Directive adopted on 27 January 2003