Opinion of the Advocate General — ECLI:EU:C:1999:249
Date: 1999-05-18
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: External relations;Social security for migrant workers
Procedure: Reference for a preliminary ruling
Origin: Belgium

Summary of the Judgment 
1. International agreements — EEC-Morocco Cooperation Agreement — Moroccan 
workers employed in a Member State — Social security — Equal treatment — 
Article 41 (1) of the Agreement — Whether Article 41 (1) may be relied upon by a 
member of the family of a Moroccan migrant worker who has acquired the nationality 
of the host Member State — Condition — Where the worker is regarded under the law 
of the host Member State as having retained Moroccan nationality — To be determined 
by the national court 
(EEC-Morocco Cooperation Agreement, Art. 41(1)) 
I - 7955 
SUMMARY — CASE C-179/98 
2. International agreements — EEC-Morocco Cooperation Agreement — Moroccan 
workers employed in a Member State — Social security — Equal treatment — 
Article 41 (1) of the Agreement — Members of the family of a Moroccan migrant 
worker — Meaning — Relatives in the ascending line of the worker and of his 
spouse — Whether covered — Condition — Must reside with the worker in the host 
Member State 
(EEC-Morocco Cooperation Agreement, Art. 41(1)) 
1. A member of the family of a migrant 
worker of Moroccan nationality — 
where that worker has acquired the 
nationality of his host Member State 
before the date on which that member 
of his family began to live with him 
there and applied for a social security 
benefit under the legislation of that 
State — cannot rely on Article 41(1) of 
the EEC-Morocco Cooperation Agree­
ment as a ground for invoking that 
worker's Moroccan nationality for the 
purposes of obtaining the benefit of the 
principle of equal treatment in the field 
of social security laid down in that 
provision. 
Such a member of the family of a 
Moroccan migrant worker, where that 
worker also has the nationality of the 
host Member State, could invoke the 
worker's Moroccan nationality, for the 
purposes of the application of Arti­
cle 41(1) of the Agreement, solely on 
the basis of the law of the Member 
State concerned, which it is for the 
national court alone, however, to inter­
pret and apply in the proceedings 
before it. 
2. The term 'members of the family' (of a 
Moroccan migrant worker), within the 
meaning of Article 41(1) of the EEC-
Morocco Cooperation Agreement — 
which confers the benefit of the prin­
ciple of non-discrimination in the field 
of social security not only on the 
Moroccan migrant worker himself but 
also on members of his family living 
with him — also covers relatives in the 
ascending line of that worker and of his 
spouse who live with him in the host 
Member State. 
I - 7956