Keywords
Summary

Keywords

++++

1. Freedom of movement for persons ° Workers ° Equal treatment ° Social advantages ° Tideover allowances for young people seeking first employment ° Grant to children of a migrant worker subject to completion of secondary education in an establishment subsidized or approved by the State concerned ° Not permissible

(Regulation No 1612/68 of the Council, Art. 7(2))

2. Freedom of movement for persons ° Workers ° Equal treatment ° Access to employment ° Scope ° National conditions for employment of young people seeking their first job involving the assumption by a national employment authority, in the event of recruitment, of all or part of the employer' s obligations ° Positive aspect of unemployment insurance ° Excluded

(EC Treaty, Art. 48; Regulation No 1612/68 of the Council, Art. 3(1))

Summary

1. By making the grant of tideover allowances to young people seeking their first employment subject to the requirement of having completed their secondary education in an establishment subsidized or approved by it, a Member State imposes a condition which is likely to be more easily fulfilled by the children of its own nationals than by those of a national of another Member State. In the case of a social advantage within the meaning of Article 7(2) of Regulation No 1612/68 which may be claimed by the members of the family of a migrant worker, that condition, which is akin to a condition of prior residence, constitutes a form of covert discrimination against the children of such a worker, contrary to the principle of equal treatment laid down by Article 48 of the Treaty and Article 7 of the abovementioned regulation, notwithstanding the fact that it also applies to nationals of that State who complete their secondary education abroad, without its being necessary to establish that in practice it affects a substantially higher proportion of children of migrant workers than those of nationals.

2. A special programme for the employment of young people who have completed their secondary education, set up by a Member State and characterized by the recruitment by organizations or undertakings of young people seeking their first employment and receiving the tideover allowance, who, for the purposes of social and tax legislation, are deemed to be employed by a national employment authority, and for whom the State assumes responsibility for the payment of all or part of their remuneration and social security contributions, must be regarded as falling within the scope of unemployment insurance and outside the scope of access to employment in the strict sense, as covered by Title I, and in particular Article 3(1), of Regulation No 1612/68.

The effect of that link with unemployment insurance is that Community law relating to freedom of movement for workers can only be relied on in order to contest discrimination on grounds of nationality involved in that regime by a person who, as a result of having already participated in the employment market by exercising an effective and genuine occupational activity, has the status of a worker within the Community meaning of that term, and young people seeking their first employment do not fall into that category.