ForMin Melescanu on Austria cutting child allowances: We assess the possibility to address European Court of Justice

Romania's Government is assessing the possibility of addressing the European Court of Justice in the case of Austria enforcing the legislation on the adjustment of the level of allowances for non-resident children of workers in this member state, depending on the average living cost in the child's residence country, Romanian Foreign Minister Teodor Melescanu told Digi 24 private television broadcaster on Sunday evening. 

He labeled this measure as discriminating. 

"It is a clear case of discrimination. Why? Because the Romanians working in Austria pay fees and taxes same as any worker or employee in Austria, regardless of nationality. Therefore they contribute to the state budget. From this point of view, we are assessing at present the possibility, if there aren't alternatives to reduce this discrimination, to address the European Court of Justice on this topic and we probably won't be the only ones," Melescanu pointed out. 

The Minister stated that, from the estimates, the allowances of the children affected by this piece of legislation would be cut down to half. 

"From the calculations we've made, most likely for the children who are in Romania, but whose parents work in Austria, there will be a 50 percent cut in these subsidies. From our point of view it is clearly a discrimination, because we are all European citizens and, according to the Treaty on the functioning of the European Union, no kind of discriminations are allowed, including in the social area, and secondly, because we are the ones losing the most, as the calculation is made depending on the living standard in each country," the minister highlighted. 

The Romanian Foreign Affairs Ministry (MAE) and Romania's Government stated on Saturday that they took note "with concern" of the coming into force starting 1 January 2019 of the legislation regarding the adjustment of the allowances for non-resident children of workers in this member state depending on the average living cost in the residence country of the child, and say that such a decision contravenes the principles laying at the foundation of the European project and the legislation of the European Union.