French Senate Proposes Bill to Limit Foreigners’ Access to Social Benefits

After two censures by the Constitutional Council in 2024, the LR senators are back in the fray by tabling a new bill this Tuesday, March 18, aimed at establishing a minimum period of legal residence before access to certain social benefits. The measure could finally be enshrined in French law, given the breach opened by the Constitutional Council in its latest censorship decisions. "The Sages shot themselves in the foot," analyzes for Le Nouvel Observateur, Lola Isidro, associate professor of law at the University of Paris Nanterre.

"The Council did not completely close the door to legislative evolution," notes Serge Slama, professor of public law at the University of Grenoble-Alpes. Senator Valérie Boyer (LR), the initiator of the new bill, is precisely trying to exploit this "breach". "Drawing the consequences of this assessment, the authors of the present bill consider that a minimum residence period of two years, with the exception of foreigners exercising a professional activity, constitutes a balanced reconciliation of the constitutional imperatives of national solidarity in favor of disadvantaged persons and the safeguarding of public order," he explains.

"If we follow the logic of proportionality, since it’s more than twice less than before, it could fit the criteria..." estimates Lola Isidro, however stressing that "there is a problem of reasoning on the part of the Council which considers that foreigners being in a different situation, we can treat them differently. So, it can mobilize the principle of equality, but there is little reason to believe in it." In the explanatory memorandum, the LR senator says she wants to "take measures to limit the migratory ’pull effect’ generated by a social system whose generous benefit conditions can contribute to attracting illegal immigration flows". An "factually false" analysis, according to Lola Isidro.

The Council can censor this text by invoking the "principle of non-discrimination" defended by the European Court of Human Rights, or for non-compliance with European Union law, whose texts provide for a principle of equality and non-discrimination in social protection, and which has signed agreements with countries like Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Lebanon, Israel, Turkey, etc. "When you apply the case law, in reality, the room for maneuver is very limited," concludes Serge Slama. The Court of Justice of the European Union could be referred to as a last resort.