Abstract

The article focuses on the CJEU case-law concerning the access to welfare of economically inactive EU citizens. After a time in which the CJEU relied on a constitutional and thus on a common notion of EU citizenship, the last decisions embraced a more statutorily based approach resulting in an increased fragmentation of the EU citizen legal status. Within this framework, economically inactive EU citizens, who are neither student nor looking for a job, seem to be specifically penalized, being questioned not only their access to welfare, but even their legal presence in the host state. The article argues this amounts to a sort of social stigmatization of such a category.