Opinion of the Advocate General — ECLI:EU:C:2000:562
Date: 2000-10-12
Language of the case: Dutch
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: External relations;Social security for migrant workers;Free movement of workers
Procedure: Reference for a preliminary ruling
Origin: Netherlands

Summary of the Judgment 
1. International agreements — EEC-Morocco Cooperation Agreement — Social secur­
ity — Equal treatment — Gradual abolition of a dependant child's allowance — 
Whether permissible — Condition 
(EC Treaty, Art. 48 (now, after amendment, Article 39 EC; EEC-Morocco Coopera­
tion Agreement — Council Regulations Nos 1612/68 and 1408/71) 
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SUMMARY — CASE C-33/99 
2. Social security for migrant workers — Family benefits — Pensioners — Benefits 
payable by the paying Member State to the beneficiary residing in the territory of 
another Member State — Restriction to family allowances within the meaning of 
Article 1(u)(ii) of Regulation No 1408/71 
(Council Regulation No 1408/71; Articles 1(u)(ii), 3(1) and 77) 
3. Freedom of movement for persons — Workers — Equal treatment — Social advan­
tages — Worker who has ceased his activity in the host Member State and has 
returned to his State of origin — Right to finance for his children's studies on the same 
conditions as those applied by the host Member State to its nationals — No such right 
(EC Treaty, Art. 48 (now, after amendment, Article 39 EC); Council Regulation 
No 1612168 Art. 7(2)) 
4. International agreements — EEC-Morocco Cooperation Agreement — Moroccan 
workers employed in a Member State — Social security — Children of a Moroccan 
worker not residing in the Community — Right to rely on the principle of non­
discrimination in regard to finance for his children's studies — No such right 
(EEC-Morocco Cooperation Agreement, Art. 41) 
1. Neither the Cooperation Agreement 
between the EEC and Morocco nor 
Article 48 of the Treaty (now, after 
amendment, Article 39 EC), nor Reg­
ulations No 1408/71 and No 1612/68, 
may be interpreted as meaning that 
they prevent a Member State from 
gradually abolishing an allowance for 
dependent children aged between 18 
and 27 years pursuing studies provided 
that its abolition does not involve 
discrimination based on nationality. 
(see para. 30, 
and operative part 1) 
2. Neither the rule prohibiting discrimi­
nation on the basis of nationality laid 
down in Article 3(1) of Regulation 
No 1408/71 nor any other provision 
of that regulation can be interpreted as 
meaning that it enables the recipient of 
a pension who resides outside the 
territory of the paying Member State 
to obtain from that Member State 
dependent child allowances other than 
family allowances within the meaning 
of Article 1(u)(ii) of that regulation, 
such as study finance. Article 77 ofthat 
regulation, the specific purpose of 
which is to define the conditions in 
which a person in receipt of a pension 
may claim a dependant child's allow­
ance from the Member State under 
whose legislation he receives a pension, 
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FAHMI AND ESMORIS CERDEIRO-PINEDO AMADO 
expressly restricts its scope to family 
allowances. 
(see paras 34-36, 
and operative part 2) 
3. A national of a Member State who has 
exercised the right to freedom of move­
ment guaranteed by Article 48 of the 
Treaty (now, after amendment, Arti­
cle 39 EC) and has ceased to exercise 
his occupational activity in the host 
Member State and returned to his 
Member State of origin, in which his 
children also reside, cannot rely on 
Article 48 or on Article 7(2) of Regu­
lation No 1612/68 in order to obtain 
from the Member State in which he 
was employed a right to have his 
children's studies financed in the same 
conditions as those applied by that 
State to its own nationals. 
(see para. 51, 
and operative part 3) 
4. Article 41 of the Cooperation Agree­
ment between the EEC and Morocco 
must be interpreted as meaning that, 
where the dependent children of a 
Moroccan worker do not reside in the 
Community, neither the Moroccan 
worker concerned nor his children can 
rely, in regard to study finance, on the 
principle of the prohibition of discri­
mination on the basis of nationality 
laid down in that provision in relation 
to social security. 
(see para. 58, 
and operative part 4) 
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