Abstract

The article explores the tension between freedom of movement within the European Community/Union and the principle of solidarity, a tension which has increased in step with the progressive enlargement over the years - to the point of becoming almost generalized - of the circle of potential beneficiaries of the associated right to cross-border access to the social benefits guaranteed by the respective national welfare systems. The paper aims to reconstruct the system of Community rules regarding the free movement of persons within the European Union from the point of view of the justifying criteria for the cross-border access to national welfare systems of different categories of 'migrant'. The underlying idea is that the diverse situations identifiable in the context of the Community legal order allow, and indeed to some extent call for, a normative treatment which is at least partly differentiated according to the differing degree to which they feature the 'tension' with the principle of solidarity which always attends the free movement of persons with the Union. The emphasis is placed on different degrees and also models of solidarity which, at least at the present stage in the European integration process, justify correspondingly graduated and differentiated forms of cross-border access to Member States' social and welfare benefits for the various categories of person who move about within the Union.