Who funds the mobile student? Shedding some light on the normative assumptions underlying EU free movement law: Commission v. Netherlands

Publishers Abstract:
In terms of its outcome, this case is not particularly important or interesting. Few had doubted that the Court would invalidate the Dutch law on student grants, which made the exportability of grants for the children of migrant workers conditional on a criterion of prior residence. The case is all the more interesting, however, for what it implicitly tells us about the normative assumptions that underlie free movement law.

The comments in this note highlight in particular how this case frames the interaction between free movement law and national welfare entitlements. The Dutch law on the Financing of Studies (Wet Studiefinanciering) offers financial support to students (i) who possess Dutch nationality, (ii) who are the children of migrants who work in the Netherlands, and (iii) who are economically inactive migrants who have lived in the Netherlands for five years.