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Guaranted now: equal rights for foreign students
Court of Justice guarantees same conditions as nationals
The European Court of Justice declared that 'Students residing in a Member State other than their own are entitled to receive a minimum subsistence allowance on the same conditions as nationals of the Host State'. The Court of Justice has ruled that the status of citizens of the European Union is destined to be the fundamental status of nationals of all the Member States. This status confers on them, in the fields covered by Community law, equality under the law irrespective of their nationality.
The Court's decision is expected to have significant implications on many aspects of people's mobility within the EU. Most Member States have legislation that directly or indirectly discriminate against European citizens from other Member States. The decision of the Court, by being generic in its nature, creates an important case law that can have a significant impact on many cases to come.
In this particular case (C-184/99) the judgement of the Court on 20 September 2001 concerned Rudy Grzelczyk, a French student in Belgium. The minimum subsistence allowance (minimex) that he was initially granted by the Public Social Assistance Centre for Ottignies-Louvain-la-Neuve, where his University was based, was cancelled. This benefit withdrawal was made on the basis that Mr Grzelczyk was a student. Belgian interpretation of free movement of workers within the EU excluded students from other EU nationalities but had no such exclusion for Belgian students. The decision of the European Court of Justice came after the referral of the case from the Labour Tribunal, Nivelles, concerning the compatibility of the Belgian law with Community law.
The Court of Justice first of all held that the minimex was indeed a social benefit and that a Belgian student in the same position would have satisfied the conditions for obtaining it. Therefore, it declared that Rudy Grzelczyk suffered discrimination solely on the grounds of his nationality. It also refused the request of the Belgian Government to limit the temporal effects of the judgement due to the fact that provisions concerning citizenship of the Union were applicable from the entry into force of the Treaty on European Union.
Source: Cedefop/dka
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