Does Cameron benefit from ECJ ruling?

Yesterday’s ‘excellent‘ ruling from the European Court of Justice on benefits immediately seemed a jolly good thing for David Cameron and allowed him to move on the Commons shambles on the European Arrest Warrant. But is it a good thing for his renegotiation plan? The Guardian reports the head of the European People’s Party in the European parliament saying that this judgement means the UK does not need to contest freedom of movement ‘because it highlights that member states have many options and legal tools at their disposal to make sure their social system is not abused’.

This would make sense if David Cameron just wants to reform freedom of movement so that you can only move to this country for work. But if he wants to curb the numbers of people coming here, even for work, then this ruling makes little difference. Chances are that he may only be able to secure the former rather than the latter anyway. And this would surely be a bit of a sleight of hand given benefit tourism is a much smaller problem than people imagine.

So though this ruling does help the UK restrict benefits for migrants who have never worked in this country, it may make European leaders even less willing to concede other reforms to freedom of movement – if that’s what the Prime Minister wants. He still needs to set out what it is that he does want, and the pressure for this will only grow after the Rochester by-election, which his party is expected to lose.