The curious case of frontier workers and study finance: Giersch

Publishers Abstract:
Discussed is the Jun 20, 2013, Judgment of the European Court of Justice (Fifth chamber) in Case C-20112, Elodie Giersch v. Etat du Grand-Duche de Luxembourg. At least three factors mark the decision as being worthy of closer comment. First, the case concerns frontier workers rather than "full-blown" migrant workers working and residing in the host Member State of employment.

Second, hidden amongst the Court's references in Giersch to its well-established case law on the entitlement to social advantages of migrant workers -- and, by extension, their family members -- are a number of statements on objective justification and proportionality which seem to jar with the very rationale behind the free movement of workers and, by extension, the free movement of students. Third, the case involves a refusal by the EU's second smallest Member State to grant the disputed educational benefit to the children of non-resident members of its employment market.