Following on from his presentation at the UACES SF Annual Research Conference in July of 2017, Charles O’Sullivan has had his presentation selected for publication on the UACES Crossroads Europe blog.
The post briefly explores how, since the onset of the Financial Crisis, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has shifted towards a far more restrictive view of what categories of EU citizens may be entitled to social benefits in a host Member State. Although EU welfare law has always emphasised that economic activity is a primary precondition for accessing welfare payments and other social benefits, the logical implications of this approach are now becoming increasingly evident, particularly in respect of economically-inactive citizens, who have been viewed by the CJEU in a growing number of cases as actual or potential ‘welfare tourists’, i.e. individuals who travel from one Member State to another in order to take advantage of their more generous welfare provision.
Charles O’Sullivan is a final year PhD student at the Department of Law and Irish Research Council scholar. He also currently lectures on the European Union law module (LW251).