THE criteria I am discriminatory towards the migrantshence the necessary rejection. This, in summary, is the decision of the Court of Justice of the European Union on the Basic incomein particular on one of the requirements set for access to the subsidy that came into force in 2019 and was cancelled by the Meloni government. According to the judges, in fact, it is excessive to require ten years of residence in Italy, of which the last two continuously, to obtain the allowance.
The ruling came today after the appeal filed by two foreign citizens who had been living in Italy for some time. The two women had been accused of having falsely certified the residency requirement, which was actually less than the ten years required by the law issued by the 5 Star Movement. In other words, they would not have been entitled to the citizen’s income but received 3,414.40 euros and 3,186.66 euros respectively. The Court of Naples turned to the EU court for a ruling on the potentially discriminatory requirement in relation to the European directive on third-country nationals.
The European judges’ assessment arrived today: ten years of residence for access to social benefits, social assistance or social protection are too many. Therefore, the Neapolitan Court cannot sanction a false attestation regarding that requirement of citizen’s income. Going into detail, the residence requirement “constitutes a indirect discrimination towards third-country nationals who are long-term residents”. In fact, “even if this requirement also applies to national citizens, it mainly concerns foreign citizens, among whom in particular such third-country nationals figure”.
The ruling of the EU Court had been anticipated by other objections from Europe, which had asked to open the citizen’s income to all European citizens. In 2021, however, the Scientific Committee had proposed improvements to the measure. As anticipated, the citizen’s income no longer exists and has been replaced by the Inclusion Allowance and the Training and Work Support, for which the government lowered the threshold to five years of residency. The Court, in fact, recalled that five years is the time necessary for a migrant to obtain the status of “long-term resident”, thus becoming a “sufficient period to be entitled to equal treatment with nationals of the Member State, in particular with regard to measures concerning social benefits, social assistance and social protection”.
The ball is now back in the court of Naples, which will not be able to criminally punish the two foreigners accused of having made false statements. But not only that. All other judges who find themselves faced with a similar situation will have to do the same.
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