THE WEEK THAT WAS... (Mar. 11, 2013)

Although a keen traveller, I had never heard about ‘benefit tourism’. Have you? At any rate, interior ministers from Austria, Germany, the Netherlands and the UK want to put an end to it. ‘Benefit tourism’ is a euphemism for foreign EU nationals taking advantage of the social welfare systems in host countries. For the moment it is an initiative of these four countries but probably there will be more joining the fold in the next weeks and months. The issue is foreseen for the agenda of the Justice and Home Affairs council meeting in June.

It seems that the four countries are especially targeting nationals from Romania and Bulgaria, who allegedly arrive in host countries with the sole purpose of claiming benefits they are not entitled to. ‘A few weeks after arriving they say they don’t have enough income and then they ask for social welfare’, an EU diplomat noted. He mentioned that half a dozen German cities like Mannheim, Düsseldorf, Berlin and München are dealing with ‘hundreds of cases’. ‘We have to take in consideration that there is a problem, that the problem exists and now we want to start a debate on how to tackle the problem’, the same diplomat stated.

For the European Commission the problem doesn’t exist at all. Jonathan Todd, the commission’s spokesman for employment, told journalists during the daily pressbriefing on Thursday that ‘existing EU laws are in place to prevent the mentioned practice’. And ‘the European Commission will ensure that all aspects of EU law concerning the free movement of workers will be respected’ he said. So far we haven’t heard from the European Parliament about ‘benefit tourism’. I bet it will not take long before we will . And I am afraid it will be predictable…

It looks like there is another ‘parting of the ways’ between ‘have’s and have-nots’ in the making in the European Union.