Ziolkowski: A Cautious Judgment on the EU Right of Permanent Residence
We are pleased to publish this guest post from Stephen Coutts, a researcher at the European University Institute. Stephen is a graduate of University College Cork and the College of Europe (Bruges). His doctoral research focusses on the relationship between EU citizenship and the area of freedom, security and justice in the EU. Stephen is the EU Correspondent for the Irish Yearbook of International Law. Handed down on the 21 st of December by the Grand Chamber of the Court of Justice, Ziolkowski is the latest in a series of cases clarifying and refining the right of permanent residence contained in Directive 2004/38 (the Citizenship Directive). Following cases C-325/09 Dias and C-169/09 Laval , Ziolkowski addresses the requirement of five years prior legal residence and specifically whether periods of residence under national law, rather than EU law, can be taken into account when deciding on permanent re...