Opinion of Mr Advocate General Mancini

Mr President,

Members of the Court,

1. The Court is called upon to interpret Regulation No 1408/71 of the Council of 14 June 1971 on the social security schemes applicable to migrant workers (Official Journal, English Special Edition 1971 (II), p. 416) in the context of a reference for a preliminary ruling on a question relating to sickness and maternity benefits for unemployed people.

2. As I have said, the object of the main action is to establish the right of an unemployed migrant worker to obtain sickness and maternity benefits from a social security organization in the Member State in which she resides. Article 25 of Regulation No 1408 makes payment of such benefits dependent upon the conditions of eligibility for unemployment benefit being met. The latter benefit is in its turn governed by Chapter 6 of the same regulation, in which is to be found Article 71, the article that the court making the reference has asked this Court to interpret. Let us therefore examine the principles of that provision.

3. Article 71 (1) (a) (ii) and (b) (ii) provide an exception to the rule that benefits are to be paid by the country in which the person was last employed. It applies only to an unemployed person who, during the period when he was last employed, resided in a Member State other than that in which he worked and, once the employment relationship had ceased to exist, had registered with the employment authorities of his country of residence. In that case, benefits are paid by the social security authorities of that country on the same basis as if the worker had last been employed there.

4. On the basis of those facts, I propose that the Court reply as follows to the request for a preliminary ruling presented by the Cour d'Appel, Rouen, by a judgment of 30 June 1983 in the case brought by the Caisse Primaire d'Assurance Maladie, Rouen against Mrs Antje Guyot:

1 Translated from the Italian.