OVERVIEW OF RECENT CASES BEFORE THE COURT OF JUSTICE OF THE EUROPEAN UNION (JANUARY- JUNE 2016)

In the first half of 2016 (the reporting period), the Court of Justice of the European Union (EU) delivered various interesting rulings concerning the rights to social (security) benefits of Union citizens who exercise their free movement rights. The rulings touch upon a variety of issues, including the right of Union citizens who have only resided in another Member State for a short period of time to claim social assistance (Garcia-Nieto); the competence of Member States to make entitlement to social security benefits falling within the scope of Regulation 883/20042004 on the coordination of social security systems(1) conditional on lawful residence in their territory (Commission v United Kingdom); Member States' declarations on the application of the coordination rules to their social benefit systems (Commission v Malta); the principle of equal treatment of benefits, income, facts or events (Knauer); the pension rights of civil servants who resign (Commission v Cyprus); the aggregation rules for unemployment benefits (M.); and student financial aid offered in the form of public transport subsidies (Commission v the Netherlands).