10-year-residence-rule for benefit unlawful-EU court

(ANSA) - ROME, JUL 29 - The EU Court of Justice said Monday that Italy breached European law by imposing a 10-year-residency requirement to be eligible for the now-defunct citizenship wage (RdC) minimum-income benefit.
    The RdC was introduced in 2019 by a previous government but Premier Giorgia Meloni's executive scrapped it and replaced it with other benefits, saying it took away jobless people's incentive to seek work and was too susceptible to fraud.
    "The Court considers, first of all, that the residency condition at issue constitutes indirect discrimination towards third-country nationals who are long-term residents," the court said in a ruling on two foreign nationals accused in Italy of falsely declaring that they met the 10-year-riule "Even though that condition also applies to nationals of the Member State, it affects primarily non-nationals, which includes, inter alia, those third-country nationals".
    The Court said that, under EU law, five years is sufficient for a third-country national to be granted long-term resident status and a Member State cannot extend unilaterally the period of residence required.
    "Lastly, the Court notes that it is also prohibited for the Member State concerned to provide for a criminal penalty for a false declaration regarding a residency condition that infringes EU law," it said. (ANSA).