On May 7th 2026, the Court of Justice of the European Union (EU) ruled that Italy cannot require beneficiaries of international protection to have lived in the country for 10 years before accessing its former “citizens’ income” scheme. In Case C-747/22, the Court found that the rule amounted to indirect discrimination, because it formally applied to everyone but, in practice, mainly excluded non-Italian nationals.
The case concerned a third-country national with subsidiary protection in Italy. After an administrative check, the Italian social security authority stopped his benefit and demanded repayment because he had not met the 10-year residence condition. Italy’s “citizens’ income” is not just a welfare payment, being framed as both anti-poverty support and a labour-market inclusion measure.
The Court rejected Italy’s argument that a long residence period proved integration or helped control administrative and financial costs. Under the EU Qualification Directive, beneficiaries of international protection must receive equal treatment with nationals in access to employment measures and necessary social assistance. The Court therefore treated the 10-year rule as more than a domestic welfare condition, it became an EU equal-treatment problem.
Politically, the judgment cuts into a familiar ‘welfare for our own’ reflex. EU social policy already encourages minimum-income schemes with transparent, non-discriminatory criteria and proportionate residence requirements. The CJEU has now given that logic legal force in a sensitive migration context.
The ruling does not mean that Member States must open welfare systems to everyone. Its message is that once a person has recognised protection status within the EU, governments cannot keep them in a second-class welfare waiting room simply because they have not lived in the country long enough. It also fits a broader Italian pattern in which complex eligibility rules have restricted migrants’ access to social benefits.
Sources
- https://curia.europa.eu/site/upload/docs/application/pdf/2026-05/cp260068en.pdf
- https://infocuria.curia.europa.eu/tabs/affair?sort=AFF_NUM-DESC&searchTerm=%22C-747%2F22%22&publishedId=C-747%2F22
- https://www.gazzettaufficiale.it/atto/serie_generale/caricaArticolo?art.codiceRedazionale=19G00008&art.dataPubblicazioneGazzetta=2019-01-28&art.flagTipoArticolo=0&art.idArticolo=1&art.idGruppo=1&art.idSottoArticolo=1&art.idSottoArticolo1=10&art.progressivo=0&art.versione=1
- https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:32023H0203(01)
- https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:32011L0095
- https://utrechtlawreview.org/articles/10.36633/ulr.897
