Who is entitled to family benefits? Lights and shadows of the ECJ rulings in WS and VR
| Published date | 01 August 2021 |
| Date | 01 August 2021 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/1023263X211014682 |
| Subject Matter | Case Notes |
Case Note
Who is entitled to family
benefits? Lights and shadows
of the ECJ rulings in WS and VR
Lorenzo Grossio*
Abstract
In WS and VR the Court of Justice interpreted the right to equal treatment afforded by EU law to
third-country nationals holding a single permit or a long-term resident’s status as preventing
national provisions which, differently from nationals and EU citizens, exclude their family members
residing abroad from the calculation of a family unit allowance. While the two rulings upheld an
established trend in Italian national case law, the reasoning of the Court raises critical concerns
over the correct identification of the beneficiaries of family benefits. Thus, the interpretation
supported by the Court is likely to restrict the scope of the right to equal treatment in an
unexpected way. Having analysed the two judgments, the present paper discusses why the Court
should have taken a different position in that specific regard.
Keywords
Equal treatment, third-country nationals, Single Permit Directive, Long-Term Residents’ Directive,
social security
1. Introduction
On 25 November 2020 two further preliminary rulings have enriched the case law of the
Court of Justice (the ‘ECJ’ or the ‘Court’) on equal treatment of third-country nationals
(TCNs) with regard to family benefits. The two judgments – delivered in cases C-302/19
1
* PhD Student in Public, European and International Law, University of Milano-Bicocca. Research Assistant, Fondazione
Collegio Carlo Alberto, Turin, Italy
Corresponding author:
Lorenzo Grossio, School of Law, University of Milano-Bicocca, U6 Building, II floor, Piazza dell’Ateneo Nuovo 1, 20126
Milan, Italy.
E-mail: l.grossio@campus.unimib.it
1. Case C-302/19 Istituto Nazionale della Previdenza Sociale (Prestations familiales pour les titulaires d’un permis
unique), EU:C:2020:957.
Maastricht Journal of European and
Comparative Law
ªThe Author(s) 2021
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DOI: 10.1177/1023263X211014682
maastrichtjournal.sagepub.com
MJ
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2021, Vol. 28(4) 582–593
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