Cameron’s migration speech and EU law: Can he change the status quo?

On November 28th, David Cameron delivered a long-awaited speech addressing public concerns on EU migration. His speech included five proposals: 1)to deport EU job-seekers who have not found work within six months; and to stop such job-seekers accessing ‘universal credit’ (which will incorporate the current job-seeker’s allowance) when it is rolled out from 2015 onwards, for their first four years in Britain; 2)to impose a four-year period before EU migrants have access to in-work benefits like tax credits and housing benefit 3)to stop workers in one EU member-state collecting child benefit there for children who live in another member-state; 4)to prevent workers from countries that join the EU from seeking work in the rest of the EU, until these countries’ economies have partially converged with those of the existing members; and 5)to make it easier to deport criminals, fraudsters and beggars from other member-states, and to ban their re-entry. This article assesses his chances of persuading other member states to agree.

ESO: Background information: Prime Minister's speech on proposals to restrict benefits to EU migrants, 27 November 2014 http://www.europeansources.info/record/david-cameron-prime-ministers-speech-on-immigration-28-november-2014/

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