Court of Justice rejects discrimination against third-country nationals in Italy’s citizenship basic income

Brussels – There is no peace for the former citizenship basic income: the subsidy introduced by the the government of the 5 Star Movement, abolished in January 2024 by the executive led by Giorgia Meloni, applied discriminatory requirements against third-country nationals who were long-term residents in Italy, according to a ruling of the Court of Justice of the EU, thus ending a dispute between Rome and two foreign nationals.

The two women were accused of falsifying applications to receive the basic income, attesting that they met the requirement of residing in Italy for at least ten years, the last two of which continuously. In this way, they allegedly unduly received a sum of just over 3,000 euros each. The Naples court turned to the courts in Luxembourg to shed light on the residency requirement of the basic income and its compliance with the European directive on long-term resident third-country nationals.

The directive dates back to 2003 and provides a condition of legal and continuous residence of five years in a Member State for a third-country national to be granted long-term resident status. This period is considered sufficient to entitle equal treatment with the nationals of that Member State, in particular, for social security, social assistance, and social protection.

According to the EU Court of Justice, it is “indirect discrimination” against non-EU nationals. The ruling is clear: a member state “may not unilaterally extend the period of residence” required by the European directive so that a third-country national can enjoy equal treatment with nationals of that member state. In addition, the court ruled that Italy cannot penalize the two women for a false declaration regarding a residency requirement that violates EU law.

However, Brussels also criticizes the new Inclusion Allowance, which the Meloni government used to replace the Conte government’s flagship measure. In its annual analysis on social convergence, published in May, the European Commission predicted that the Meloni reform would result in “a higher incidence of absolute and child poverty (by 0.8 percentage points and 0.5 percentage points, respectively) than under the previous scheme.”