European migrants no longer have the same rights as other workers in the EU.

The European Court of Justice decided on 15th September that member states can impose greater limits on the rights to benefit of EU migrants in other countries.  EUobserver explains that if a person works for less than a year, then benefits can be suspended after six months, and the claimants can be deported.

I wrote, earlier this year, that “The UK can legitimately deny benefits to EU workers if, and only if, it denies benefits to British workers on the same basis.”  It seems I was wrong.   Britain, and other European states, can now come to the decision that a  European worker might not be enough of a worker to be treated as one, and European migrants who work do not have the same rights as other workers.  That drives a cart and horses through the principle of free movement of labour on equal terms.