Case C-209/03 Dany Bidar [2005] ECR I-2119

• Bidar was a French national studying in the UK and applied for a student loan / maintenance from the UK government to finance his studies there.

• He was refused on the grounds of requiring students to demonstrate a certain degree of integration into UK society, which the ECJ said was permissible, though it also held that a requirement to show a link with a state’s employment market and that the student be ‘settled’ in the UK were excessively restricted and unjustified.

• NB before proceeding to the ‘justification/proportionality’ question the ECJ held that such a loan / grant came within the scope of treaty Article 12, even though the right to a grant didn’t come within the Students Directive nor the 2004/38 directive.

  • Relying on a combination of Article 12 and 18 leads to a greater set of entitlements than the narrower directives. 

ECJ

• Again talks about citizenship being destined to be fundamental status of MS nationals and how issues concerning the fundamental freedoms (including freedom of movement) fall within the scope of the Treaty.