Keywords
Summary

Keywords

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1 . Social security for migrant workers - Family benefits - Recipients of pensions - Benefits payable by the Member State of origin to its nationals residing in another Member State - Limitation to family allowances within the meaning of Article 1 ( u ) ( ii ) of Regulation No 1408/71

( Council Regulation No 1408/71, Art . 77 )

2 . Social security for migrant workers - Treaty provisions - Purpose - Coordination, not harmonization, of national legislation - Differences of treatment stemming from differences between social security systems - Permissibility - Creation of disparities of treatment by Community rules - Not permissible - Principle prohibiting discrimination on grounds of nationality - Scope - Article 77 of Regulation No 1408/71 - Legality

( EEC Treaty, Arts 7, 48 and 51; Council Regulation No 1408/71, Art . 77 )

Summary

1 . Article 77 of Regulation No 1408/71 must be interpreted as giving a person entitled to family benefits who is a national of a Member State and has dependent children but resides in another Member State entitlement to payment by the social security institutions of his country of origin only of "family allowances", as defined in Article 1 ( u ) ( ii ) of Regulation No1408/71, to the exclusion of other family benefits such as the "rentrée scolaire" ( school expenses ) allowance and the "salaire unique" ( single wage ) allowance provided for by French legislation .

2 . Article 51 of the Treaty provides for the coordination, not the harmonization, of the legislation of the Member States and leaves in being differences between the Member States' social security systems and, consequently, in the rights of persons working in the Member States . It follows that substantive and procedural differences between the social security systems of the Member States, and hence in the rights of the persons working in the Member States, are unaffected by Article 51 of the Treaty . However, the Community rules on social security must refrain from adding to the disparities which already stem from the absence of harmonization of national legislation, and the principle of equal treatment laid down in Articles 7 and 48 of the Treaty prohibits not only overt discrimination based on nationality but also all covert forms of discrimination which, by applying other distinguishing criteria, in fact achieve the same result .

Article 77 of Regulation No 1408/71, under which the benefits for dependent children which a Member State must pay to its nationals who are in receipt of a pension and reside in another Member State are restricted to family allowances, is not contrary to those principles . It is a rule of general scope which applies indistinctly to all nationals of the Member States and is based on objective criteria concerning the nature of benefits of that kind and the conditions for granting them; it does not of itself lead to discrimination .