From 2014, ECJ decisions on welfare access have departed significantly from previous case law. This article analyses two Court dialogues, one with the EU legislator, the other with national authorities. In two different rulings in 2014 and 2015, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) supported the German government in excluding a Romanian and a Swedish national living in Germany from social assistance benefits. These two cases were considered a dramatic departure from previous ECJ case law. Our recent article in the Journal of European Integration investigates this shift, and suggests factors that can account for it.