Overview of recent cases before the Court of Justice of the European Union (July-September 2013)

In the period july–december 2013 the court of justice of the european union (cjeu) delivered various interesting rulings which are worth reporting. Two rulings stand out: brey, which concerned the entitlement of economically inactive union citizens to minimum subsistence benefits other than classic social assistance; and united kingdom v council, in which the court was asked whether the eu legislature can use its power to coordinate social security schemes to extend regulation 883/2004 to the european economic area. In addition, this overview includes rulings in cases concerning pensions (gardella and casta), family benefits (hliddal and bornand, and lachheb and lachheb), health insurance for pensioners (van der helder and farrington) and the portability of student financial aid (prinz and seeberger, elrick, and thiele meneses).1