Judicial Challenges Against Suspension of Basic Income for Foreigners in Italy Still Remain, EU Commission Says

In a recent press release, the Commission said that in the last two years, several appeals had been brought against decisions to suspend the allocations of the citizenship basic income to migrants in Italy, AtoZSerwisPlus.com reports.

It has been emphasised that because of the way how the funding process has been implemented, the beneficiaries have been receiving allowance before the relevant authority has carried out checks to assess the eligibility.

“For migrants, many of these checks lead to negative determinations because they do not meet the residence criteria for basic income,” the Commission highlighted.

According to the Commission, migrants have faced several obstacles since the initial implementation of the basic income system.

The basic income is only granted to individuals who have been legally residing in Italy for at least ten years. However, there has been confusion around how this should be proven.

In the beginning, the requirement appeared to include proof of registered residence, but then in 2020, the Ministry of Labour issued an interpretation act clarifying that a de facto residence, proven by any means, is required.

In addition to the above-mentioned, some courts have raised concerns about the compatibility of the basic income system.

“According to a decision issued by the Court of Appeal of Milan in May 2022, the requirement of ten years of residence would violate Article 3 of the Italian Constitution (which sets out the principle of equality and non-discrimination), in so far as it is not inherently connected with people’s social needs,” the Commission added.

Thus, the court decided to raise the question of the constitutionality of the law in front of the Italian Constitutional Court.

A court in Naples also considered the ten years of residence requirements to be potentially contradictory to the principle of non-discrimination as defined in European Union law. The court had to make a decision on the criminal responsibility of a national of a third country accused of reviewing the benefits based on false residence declarations.

Since there could be possible contrast between the EU law and Italian law, the court issued a preliminary reference in front of the EU’s Court of Justice.

Even though the two questions are still pending, the recent judicial activism mirrors concerns of civil society networks regarding the ‘illogical’ discrimination between national and foreigners in accessing a system that aims to help beneficiaries to find a new job as well as promote their social inclusion.