MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The government's initiative would apply to EU citizens who work in another member state, but whose children stay in their home country, the media outlet reported. The amount of the child benefit may be reduced if the standard of living in the country where the child lives is lower.
"It is a viable option that the child benefits will be adjusted for the children who do not live in Germany to the respective cost of living in their country. In general, the cost of living is lower there than in Germany. We are going to discuss within the federal government, how Germany should therefore proceed," Minister Manuela Schwesig said, quoted by the Focus magazine on Sunday.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel had positively assessed the initiative directly after the same agreement with Great Britain reached on the EU summit last week, saying she could "very well imagine" that Germany would implement the same practice.
