In other EU countries

Innovation for care leave allowance for relatives

On Thursday, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in Luxembourg ruled that authorities may not reject an application for care leave benefits across the board simply because the family member to be cared for does not receive care benefits in the country and lives abroad. The state must justify such a restriction "objectively by a legitimate aim".

This objective must also serve "in particular to maintain the financial equilibrium of the national social security system" and constitute "a proportionate measure to achieve that objective", the Luxembourg judges wrote in their ruling.

The starting point is the case of an Italian who has been living and working in Austria for over ten years. In 2022, he agreed a care leave of one and a half months with his employer in order to care for his father, who lived in Italy. If he had lived in Austria, he would have been entitled to level 3 care allowance due to his state of health. 

Application rejected, man turned to the ECJ
Shortly afterwards, the Ministry of Social Affairs rejected the son's application for care leave allowance on the grounds that the father did not receive care allowance in Austria. The son defended himself before the Federal Constitutional Court, which in turn turned to the ECJ to clarify the EU legal situation.

The plaintiff argued, among other things, that non-Austrians are much more often in the situation that their parents live abroad and that the reasoning therefore constitutes discrimination against non-Austrian EU citizens. The ECJ confirmed this view, but pointed out that discrimination is permitted under EU law in some cases.