INMartinez Sala v. Freistaat Bayern (Case C-85/96, judgment of 12 May 1998, not yet reported), the Court of Justice has taken a step towards the clarification of the real force of the EC Treaty provisions on citizenship. Mrs. Martinez Sala was a Spanish national lawfully resident in Germany since 1968 and employed there at intervals between 1976 and 1989. In 1993, she applied to the State of Bavaria for a child-raising allowance, a benefit granted to all residents in Germany who had a dependent child in their care and were either unemployed or had no full-time employment. Her application was rejected on the grounds that at the time that she applied for the benefit she was not in possession of a residence permit, a requirement that had to be met by all non-German nationals. The central issue in the case was, therefore, whether Mrs. Martinez Sala had been discriminated against.