Opinion of the Advocate General — ECLI:EU:C:1997:613
Date: 1997-12-16
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: Social security for migrant workers
Procedure: Reference for a preliminary ruling
Origin: Sweden

Summary of the Judgment
1. Social security for migrant workers — Community rules — Persons covered — Person unem­
ployed in one Member State and in receipt of unemployment benefit under the legislation of
that State — Included — Person unemployed when Regulation No 1408/71 entered into force
in that Member State — No effect
(Regulation No 1408/71, Arts 1(a), 2(1) and 94(2) and (3))
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SUMMARY — CASE C-275/96
2. Social security for migrant workers — Legislation applicable — Person who has ceased all
occupational activity in the territory of one Member State and transferred his residence to
another Member State — Legislation of the first Member State attaching a residence require­
ment to the right to remain subject to its legislation — Whether permissible
(Regulation No 1408/71, Art. 13(2)(f))
3. Social security for migrant workers — Family benefits — Definition — Parental benefits
intended to meet the recipient's family expenses — Included
(Regulation No 1408/71, Arts 1(u)(i), and 4(1)(h))
4. Social security for migrant workers — Family benefits — Person who has ceased all occupa­
tional activity on the territory of one Member State and transferred his residence to another
Member State where he lives with his family — Refusal to grant benefits pursuant to the
national rules of the first Member State — Whether permissible
(Regulation No 1408/71, Arts 13(2)(f), 73 and 74)
1. Regulation No 1408/71, as amended and
updated by Regulation No 2001/83,
applies to a person who, on the entry into
force of that regulation in a Member
State, was residing in that State as an
unemployed person, having previously
been in employment there, and who, by
reason of that employment, was receiving
unemployment benefit under the social
security scheme of that Member State.
2. Article 13(2)(f) of Regulation No 1408/71,
as inserted by Regulation No 2195/91,
does not preclude the legislation of a
Member State from making the right of a
person who has ceased all occupational
activity in its territory to remain subject to
its legislation dependent on his continued
residence there.
That provision is specifically intended to
govern such a situation and, to that end,
in the case of a person who is no longer
subject to any legislation applicable by
virtue of the other provisions of Article
13(2) or of Articles 14 to 17 of Regulation
No 1408/71, declares applicable to that
person the legislation of the Member
State in whose territory he resides.
Moreover, Article 13(2)(f) covers any
situation in which the legislation of a
Member State ceases to be applicable to a
person, for whatever reason, and not only
because the person concerned has ceased
his occupational activity, be it definitively
or temporarily, in a given Member State.
3. A benefit intended to enable one of the
parents to devote himself or herself to the
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KUUSIJÄRVI v RIKSFÖRSÄKRINGSVERKET
raising of a young child, and designed,
more specifically, to remunerate the ser­
vice of bringing up a child, to meet the
other costs of caring for and raising a
child and, as the case may be, to mitigate
the financial disadvantages entailed in giv­
ing up income from an occupational
activity, must be treated as a family ben­
efit within the meaning of Articles 1(u)(i)
and 4(1)(h) of Regulation No 1408/71.
4. Regulation No 1408/71 does not preclude
the legislation of a Member State from
providing that a person who has ceased
all occupational activity in its territory
loses the right to continue to receive fam­
ily benefits paid under that legislation on
the ground that he has transferred his
residence to another Member State where
he lives with the members of his family.
A person who has transferred his resi­
dence to another Member State where he
lives with the members of his family does
not fulfil the conditions either of Article
73 or of Article 74 of Regulation
No 1408/71, inasmuch as neither that per­
son nor the members of his family have
ever resided in a Member State other than
the one whose legislation was applicable
to him. That is so in particular by reason
of the fact that, under Article 13(2)(f) of
Regulation No 1408/71, a person in such
a situation is subject, after transferring his
residence to another Member State, to the
legislation of that Member State.
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