Equal treatment and EU citizens: A new chapter on cross-border educational mobility and access to student financial assistance

Abstract: The ruling in Förster (C-158/07)1 is a further twist in the Court’s contribution to the development of the status of EU citizenship. The case focuses attention once again on the entitlement of EU citizens (students) to non-discriminatory treatment as regards access to social benefits (maintenance grants). The ruling thus contributes further to discussion of the effect of EU citizenship on national welfare systems and the ramifications of cross-border educational mobility in host Member States in particular. The salient feature of the Förster case, however, lies in the fact that the residence condition imposed by the host Member State for entitlement to maintenance grants mirrors the condition expressly permitted by a derogation from the principle of equal treatment in Directive 2004/38. The decision of the
Court thus constitutes an implicit ruling on the validity of that derogation and raises questions about the coherence of its EU citizenship case law, the consequences of this decision for other distinct categories of EU citizen and the effect of the codification of case law of the Court on the relationship between provisions of primary and secondary EC law.