Judgment — ECLI:EU:C:2008:110
Date: 2008-02-21
Language of the case: German
Court formation: Second Chamber
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: Social Policy
Concepts: Equal treatment
Procedure: Reference for a preliminary ruling
Origin: Austria

Summary of the Judgment Social security for migrant workers – Equal treatment – Childcare allowance (Council Regulation No 1408/71, Art. 3(1)) Article 3(1) of Regulation No 1408/71 precludes a Member State from refusing to take into account, for the purposes of granting a family benefit such as childcare allowance, the period during which a comparable benefit was drawn in another Member State as if that period had been completed in its own territory. The principle of non-discrimination, as laid down in Article 39(2) EC and implemented, as far as concerns social security for migrant workers, by Article 3(1) of Regulation No 1408/71, prohibits not only overt discrimination based on the nationality of the beneficiaries of social security schemes but also all covert forms of discrimination which, through the application of other distinguishing criteria, lead in fact to the same result. Accordingly, conditions imposed by national law must be regarded as indirectly discriminatory where, although applicable irrespective of nationality, they affect essentially migrant workers or the great majority of those affected are migrant workers, where they are applicable without distinction but can more easily be satisfied by national workers than by migrant workers, or where there is a risk that they may operate to the particular detriment of the latter. (see paras 17-18, 22, operative part)