MISINFORMATION – European citizens forced to leave Germany after six months

Some readers have sent us an apparently reliable source, which goes a bit like this:

Dopo sei mesi, i cittadini europei disoccupati sono pregati di lasciare la Germania. Questa la misura più drastica invocata dal governo di Berlino per bloccare quello che media e politici tedeschi definiscono Sozialturismus, cioé il turismo del welfare. D’altra parte, come ha spiegato l’altra sera Angela Merkel, “L’Ue non è un’unione sociale: non pagheremo i sussidi a chi sta in Germania a cercare lavoro”. Il precursore è stato il Belgio, ora tocca a Berlino…
…In Belgio, il primo Paese a utilizzare le deroghe al trattato di Schengen previste dalla direttiva europea 2004/38 (che permette di interdire la permanenza ai cittadini comuniutari che diventino un onere per il Paese ospitante), non si è verificata nessuna espulsione, ma agli “indesiderati” vengono ritirati i documenti necessari a trovare un lavoro e perfino ad affittare una stanza. Dal ministero degli Interni tedesco fanno sapere che “si potrebbe ricorrere ad una misura simile, ma è ancora presto per dare dei dettagli”

For the benefit of our non-Italian speaking readers, this is a rough translation. According to the text, Berlin forces the citizens of the European Union to leave the German country after six months in order to keep a hold of Sozialturismus, i.e. “the welfare tourism”. It quotes the Free Movement of Citizens Directive  2004/37/EC as proof.
First of all, this is partly true, but it needs more context. According to the directive itself, this kind of law exists and can be applied in every country of the European Union. Here’s the text in detail, as reported in point 16 of the directive:

As long as the beneficiaries of the right of residence do not become an unreasonable burden on the social assistance system of the host Member State they should not be expelled. Therefore, an expulsion measure should not be the automatic consequence of recourse to the social assistance system. The host Member State should examine whether it is a case of temporary difficulties and take into account the duration of residence, the personal circumstances and the amount of aid granted in order to consider whether the beneficiary has become an unreasonable burden on its social assistance system and to proceed to his expulsion. In no case should an expulsion measure be adopted against workers, self-employed persons or job-seekers as defined by the Court of Justice save on grounds of public policy or public security.

Here in Italy, for example, this is explicitly stated in the legislative decree of February 28th, 2008 (Italian text only).
The only reason why the original, misinforming text was shared is to spread discontent and social hate against immigrants coming to Italy, which unfortunately is growing strong and uninformed because of the economic crisis.