Overview of Recent Cases Before the Court of Justice of the European Union (January-July 2026)

This case law report examines three judgments delivered by the Court of Justice of the European Union between January and July 2026. The first two are preliminary ruling cases referred by Italian courts concerning residence requirements for access to social benefits under Italian law. In C-151/24 Luevi , the Court considered whether a residence-duration requirement imposed on a third-country national holding a residence and work permit was compatible with the equal treatment provision of the Single Permit Directive in relation to a special non-contributory cash benefit. The Court confirmed that such persons fall within the Directive's personal scope, but held that the equal treatment provision does not extend to special non-contributory cash benefits. The second case, C-747/22 INPS , concerned the requirement of ten years’ lawful residence to qualify for a basic income benefit. Building on its earlier ruling in Joined Cases C-112/22 and C-223/22 CU and ND , in which it found the requirement to constitute indirect discrimination under the Long-Term Residence Directive, the Court reached the same conclusion in the context of Directive 2011/95 on standards for the qualification of third-country nationals as beneficiaries of international protection. The report ends with a discussion on the infringement case in C-642/24 Commission v Germany , in which the Court reaffirmed its earlier ruling in C-328/20 Commission v Austria , holding that the indexation of family benefits for children residing in another Member State is incompatible with EU law.