- 34 - A – Submissions of the parties 1. The complainant organisation 92. Médecins du Monde underlines that the Roma population, whom the complaint concerns, is largely composed of families. 93. Médecins du Monde requests the Committee to find a violation of the Charter on account of the withdrawal of family benefits previously distributed to certain migrant Roma. While the claim is submitted under Article 13§1, the Committee decides to consider it under Article 16, since it is the provision of the Charter establishing the right of the family to social, legal and economic protection. 94. Médecins du Monde stresses that, at first, family benefits were granted to all Romanian and Bulgarian nationals with no condition of a legal residence on the basis of an internal circular of the national family insurance fund (CNAF) of 16 January 2007. By means of a new CNAF circular (of 18 June 2008), the eligibility for family benefits has been limited to nationals of the European Union who satisfy the lawful residence condition. Several local family allowance funds (CAFs) have therefore interrupted the benefit payments to inactive nationals of the European Union. Despite another circular (CNAF circular 2009-022 of 21 October 2009) specifying that the CAFs were not entitled to verify the right to residence of persons already receiving family allowances, it appears that many of the CAFs continue to refuse to reverse the decisions suspending Roma families' benefits, which is, according to Médecins du Monde, not in conformity with the Charter. 95. Médecins du Monde reiterates, secondly, from the viewpoint of Article 16, the grounds set out under Article 31 concerning the entitlement to housing of Roma families of Romanian and Bulgarian origin. 2. The Government 96. As concerns family benefits, the Government underlines that lawful residence is a requirement of eligibility for social assistance and housing and has a direct impact on the health care scheme. This is a general principle of all social protection in France and may in any case not be considered discriminatory because it is based on an objective evaluation of the circumstances. It adds that Roma populations with lawful residence in France have the same rights and access to social benefits as other lawfully resident foreign nationals or French citizens. 97. The Government does not make different arguments on the issue of families and their housing than those made under Article 31 on the right to housing.

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