Overview of recent cases before the Court of Justice of the European Union (January − June 2018)

Abstract

In the fi rst part of 2015 the Court of Justice (CoJ) of the European Union (EU) delivered a comparatively large number of rulings relevant for the fi eld of social security. None of the twelve rulings selected for purposes of this overview can be labelled as landmark judgments introducing new principles or overruling existing ones. Yet, virtually all of the judgments do bring important clarifi cations by specifying previously recognised principles or interpretations or by applying these in cases involving other factual circumstances. Th e most interesting judgments concern the rules determining the applicable legislation ( Franzen, Kik and Evans), the application of Regulations 1408/71 and 883/2004 to ‘socially earmarked taxes’ ( de Ruyter), the continued legal signifi cance of bilateral social security agreements concluded before the aforementioned Regulations became applicable to the States concerned ( Balasz), the right to unemployment benefi ts for frontier workers ( Mertens), the right of Turkish nationals to export of special non-contributory cash benefi ts (SNCBs – Demirci) and the principle of non-discrimination on grounds of gender in social security matters (Cachaldora Fernandez).