Cameron claims victory as EU Court of Justice’s rules against benefit tourism
A new judgment issued today by the European Court of Justice has confirmed that migrants cannot move to another Member state solely to claim benefits and that the UK is fully able to impose the restrictions it wants on so-called benefits tourism.
The court found against the claimants in a case brought by two non-working Romanian citizens and their child against a German job centre for refusing to grant them certain social benefits.
The judgment confirmed that Member States are not obliged to grant social assistance during the first three months of residence and that for up to five years after arrival economically inactive migrants must have sufficient resources of their own and cannot rely on the host country to fund their subsistence.
British Influence Director Peter Wilding said : “The government can no longer blame Brussels for benefit tourism. If it fails to control it in the UK, it is alone responsible.
“We know that benefit tourism is a smokescreen for the wider immigration debate. But, as the ECJ’s judgment proves, it is up to the Government to tell the public that EU legislation is far from soft on benefit tourism and the UK has more leeway to determine benefit entitlement than people realise.”
The Court in its judgement said that, for the purposes of having access to certain social benefits, EU citizens who move to another Member State can only claim equal treatment with nationals of the host country is their residence complies with the requirements of the Directive on the free movement of EU citizens.