Brave new world? the new EU law on travel authorisation for non-EU citizens

Artikel van Steve Peers  een Britse professor

"My analysis of the new EU law on advance travel authorisation for non-EU citizens, including UK citizens after Brexit"




Introduction

Yesterday it was announced that a new EU law on travel authorisation for non-EU citizens to visit the EU had been agreed. This will affect millions of travellers a year, probably including British citizens after Brexit. In fact, as a UK citizen who often travels to the continent, it’s the first EU law on non-EU immigration that will have a direct impact on me. The law won’t apply for awhile, but in light of its future significant impact and some public confusion about who it will apply to and how it works, it’s worth explaining in detail.

Basics of the system

First of all, a travel authorisation is not a visa. While it is similar to a short-term travel visa in the sense that it is a process for deciding in advance whether a person can enter the territory, it will be much simpler and less costly to apply, and be valid for much longer.

The second key issue is: which countries are covered? This has two dimensions: the countries which will apply the travel authorisation law and the countries whose citizens will be subject to travel authorisation.

Taking these points in turn, the countries which will apply the travel authorisation law are the countries fully applying the Schengen system. This means all the EU Member States except the UK, Ireland, Cyprus, Romania, Bulgaria and Croatia – although those States all except the UK and Ireland are obliged to take part in Schengen eventually. It also means non-EU countries associated with Schengen: Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Switzerland.

As for the countries whose citizens will be subject to travel authorisation, that’s all non-EU countries which are a) not subject to a visa obligation for their citizens to visit the EU and b) do not have a free movement arrangement with the EU. So it follows that the new travel authorisation law will apply to British citizens who visit the EU after Brexit – unless they are visiting Ireland or the other EU countries not yet fully applying the Schengen rules. As an exception, though, the law will not apply (even if the new system is ready) to the UK during the post-Brexit transition period, because (as discussed here) it will be applying free movement with the EU during that time. (Despite the weird claim in one newspaper, this has nothing to do with whether the UK has some form of customs union with the eU).

Do continue please on  his own weblog:

http://eulawanalysis.blogspot.nl/2018/04/brave-new-world-new-eu-law-on-travel.html "

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A Pyrrhic victory? The ECJ upholds the EU law on relocation of asylum-seekers

Professor Steve Peers

How should the EU deal with the perceived ‘migrant/refugee crisis’? It has done a number of things, but back in September 2015, when the numbers of arrivals were peaking, it did something truly remarkable – requiring Member States to relocate 160,000 asylum-seekers from the ‘frontline’ states of Italy and Greece, which were bearing most of the burden of new arrivals.

In fact, this took the form of two separate decisions, as I discussed in detail at the time. The first decision was relatively uncontroversial, since it concerned only 40,000 people and Member States had agreed to admit them by consensus. But the second decision, concerning the other 120,000 people, was adopted against the objection of several Member States and set out mandatory quotas for admission. This led to legal action by Slovakia and Hungary to challenge this decision before the ECJ (see discussion of the Slovak challenge here).

This week, the ECJ ruled against this legal challenge, following soon after the opinion of its Advocate-General, who took the same view. As we shall see, this case brings into sharp relief the conflict between effectiveness and legitimacy in EU law – and indeed between effectiveness as a legal principle and practical effect on the ground...................................

MORE:  http://eulawanalysis.blogspot.nl/2017/09/a-pyrrhic-victory-ecj-upholds-eu-law-on.html?m=1





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Wellicht is mijn boekenblog ook interessant: Novel set in pre Taliban Afghanistan/i> More:  http://dutchysbookreviews.blogspot.nl/

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The new Directive on immigration of students and researchers: a small step or a big leap forward?

Steve Peers

For a number of years, the EU has aimed to attract highly-skilled non-EU migrants to its territory. However, the existing legislation on this issue – the researchers’ Directive, adopted in 2005, and the students’ Directive, adopted in 2004 – have only had a modest impact on attracting more students and researchers to the EU, according to the Commission’s reports (see here and here) on the two Directives, issued in 2011.

Consequently, the Commission proposed an overhaul of this legislation in 2013. The European Parliament (EP) and the Council recently agreed on the text of this proposal (for the text of the provisional version of the future Directive, see here; the final version will be ‘tidied up’ a little legally). As you would expect, the EP and the Council compromised between their respective positions (for those positions, see here and here), which I discussed in an earlier blog post.

I’ll examine first the background and content of the new Directive, then look at how effective it is likely to be in its objective on increasing the numbers of researchers and students coming from third States.

Background

The current students’ Directive also applies to the admission of school pupils on exchange programmes, unpaid trainees and volunteers, although Member States have an option to apply it to the latter three groups of migrants. The CJEU has ruled twice on the interpretation of this Directive. In  Sommer it ruled that Member States could not apply a labour-market preference test for students; in Ben Alaya case (discussed here), it ruled that Member States must admit students who comply with the rules on admission in the Directive. The same logically applies to the current researchers’ Directive. The UK and Denmark opted out of both Directives, while Ireland opted in to the researchers' Directive. All three countries have opted out of the new law.

The new law

The new Directive merges the students’ and researchers’ Directives, making major changes to them both. First of all, the Commission proposed that Member States would be obliged to apply the currently optional rules relating to school pupils, unpaid trainees and volunteers, as well as rules on two new groups of migrants: au pairs and paid trainees. The EP agreed with this idea, while the Council rejected it entirely. Ultimately, the two institutions compromised: the new Directive will have binding rules on (paid and unpaid) trainees and some volunteers (those participating in the EU’s European Voluntary Service), although stricter conditions will apply to the admission of trainees (more on that below). However, the rules on other volunteers and school pupils will remain optional, along with the new rules on au pairs.

Next, the Commission proposed to limit Member States’ current power to apply more favourable rules for students and researchers, confining that power to only a few provisions relating to the rights of migrants, while fully harmonising the rules on admission. The final Directive accepts the basic principle that the power to set more favourable standards should be more limited that at present, but imposes fewer such constraints than the Commission wanted. Member States will be allowed to apply more favourable rules for the persons concerned as regards the time limits on their residence permits. Many of the conditions relating to admission and withdrawal or non-renewal of the right to stay will be optional, not mandatory (as the Commission had proposed), and the Council insisted on many additional options being added. A clause in the preamble sets out the Council’s wish to provide expressly that Member States can have rules on admission of other categories of students or researchers.

Against the Commission’s wishes, the final Directive provides that the current rules on delegating decision-making to research institutions or universities will remain. Furthermore, it adds that Member States can optionally delegate such powers as regards volunteers or trainees as well.

Trainees are defined (more restrictively than the current law) as those who have recently completed a degree (within the last two years), or who are currently undertaking one. Their time on the territory is limited to six months, although this can be longer if the traineeship is longer, and the authorisation can be renewed once. But Member States retain the power to set more favourable standards as regards these time limits.  

One striking feature of the agreed Directive is a new right for students and researchers to stay after their research or study to look for work or self-employment. The EU institutions agreed on the principle of this right, but disagreed on the details. According to the Commission, the right should apply for a period of 12 months, although after 3 months Member States could check on the genuineness of this search, and after 6 months they could ask the migrant to prove that they have real prospects. The EP wanted to extend the period to 18 months, and to make Member States wait longer to check on the genuineness of the job search or likelihood of employment. On the other hand, the Council wanted several restrictions: to reduce the stay to 6 months; to allow Member States to limit students’ possibility to stay to those who have at least a Master’s degree; to check on the likelihood of employment after 3 months; and to give Member States an option to limit the job search to the areas of the migrant’s expertise. The final deal splits the difference on the period of extra stay (it will be 9 months), and accepts the various optional limits on the right which the Council wanted.

Lees verder op het weblog van Steve Peers self / continue your reading here please: http://eulawanalysis.blogspot.be/2015/11/the-new-directive-on-immigration-of.html

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Nieuw boek: EU Immigration and Asylum Law (Text and Commentary): Second Revised Edition (Immigration and Asylum Law and Policy in Europe)

EU Immigration and Asylum Law (Text and Commentary): Second Revised Edition (Immigration and Asylum Law and Policy in Europe) Hardcover – 18 May 2015

by Steve Peers (Author), Madeline Garlick (Author), Violeta Moreno-Lax (Author), & 1 more

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Since 1999, the EU has adopted legislation harmonizing many areas of immigration law, in particular rules on borders, visas, legal migration, and irregular migration. The much-enlarged and fully updated second edition of this book contains the text of and detailed commentary upon every significant measure in this field proposed or adopted up until 1 September 2011. It includes commentary on the EU visa code, the Schengen Borders Code, the Frontex Regulation, the Returns Directive, the Directives on family reunion, long-term residents and single permits for migrant workers, and many more besides. This volume completes this new edition of EU Immigration and Asylum Law, which consists of a 3-volume set. It is the essential guide for any lawyers, academics, civil servants, NGOs and students interested in this area of law.

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The Commission’s new EU Migration Strategy: Waiting for the Great Leap Forward by Steve Peers

 Steve Peers is a Professor of EU and Human Rights Law at the University of Essex.

 

Today this Commission releases its EU immigration strategy. The final text is not available yet, but here are my thoughts on the earlier version, leaked on Monday. I will update them if the final strategy differs significantly from the leaked draft.

Content

The migration strategy is divided into three parts. First of all, it sets out ‘immediate action’ to address the migrant death crisis. Secondly, it describes an agenda for immigration management in four areas: irregular immigration, border management, asylum and legal migration. Finally, it briefly sets out some long-term objectives.

Immediate action

The ‘immediate action’ section largely elaborates upon the strategy already defined by EU leaders in response to the deaths in the Mediterranean. As I discussed already, this is a modest response to the crisis, focussed mainly upon enlarging EU interception operations in the Mediterranean and destroying smugglers’ boats.   

However, the Commission paper suggests more ambition in two areas. First, it wants to go further on the ‘relocation’ of asylum-seekers between Member States. This would mean that frontline states like Italy and Malta do not have to deal with so many asylum-seekers, which would normally be their responsibility under the EU’s Dublin rules on this issue. So on this issue, the Commission will propose by the end of May ‘emergency response’ legislation on the basis of Article 78(3) of the TFEU, which will allocate asylum-seekers coming as part of a mass influx between Member States. These laws will be subject to a qualified majority vote in the Council, but the European Parliament (EP) will only be consulted. The Commission will then follow that up with a proposal by the end of 2015 for a permanent system of relocation, on the basis of the ‘ordinary legislative procedure’, ie the usual powers of the EP. I have already discussed separately the question of whether they would apply to the UK.

Secondly, the Commission wants to go further on resettlement, ie the entry of recognised refugees now in third States into the EU. On this issue, the Commission will make a Recommendation on resettlement, to be followed by a binding proposal for legislation if this proves insufficient. Extra EU funds will be made available to assist resettlement.

Irregular immigration

First of all, the Commission wants to address root causes of irregular migration, by focussing the money the EU already spends on these issues. There is no clear commitment to more spending. Next, the Commission wants to address smuggling of migrants, with an ‘Action Plan’ to be produced by the end of May. The Commission doesn’t mention this, but a review of the current EU legislation on smuggling of migrants is now underway. Also, the Commission wants to take further action to enforce the EU’s Directive on employment of irregular migrants (on the implementation of this Directive, see discussion here).

Also, the Commission wants to address the issue of return, by prioritising countries of origin for readmission treaties with the EU, providing guidelines on the application of the EU Return Directive (see here on implementation of that Directive), and giving the EU Border Agency, Frontex, the power to initiate expulsion missions. The Commission will propose legislation on the latter issue on the basis of an evaluation to be completed by the end of the year.

Border management

Commission proposals here largely urge more implementation of existing EU rules. The only concrete initiative is a commitment to relaunch the EU’s ‘Smart Borders’ proposals, for an entry-exit system of non-EU nationals, by the start of 2016. But the Commission was planning to do this anyway.

Asylum

The second phase of EU legislation on asylum is partly applicable already: the ‘qualification Directive’ on the definition and content of refugee and subsidiary protection status should have applied from the end of 2013, and the ‘Dublin III’ rules on asylum-seeker responsibility applied from the start of 2014. The other revised rules, on the ‘Eurodac’ system, asylum-seekers’ reception and asylum procedures, apply from July 2015 already.

The Commission promises to focus on implementation of these laws, by issuing guidance documents and prioritising infringement procedures against Member States which do not apply the law properly. It will also review the Dublin system in 2016, and may suggest proposals to speed up processing in cases involving safe countries of origin.

Legal migration

The Commission supports a legal migration policy based on demographic needs to increase the working-age population in the EU. It will conduct a ‘fitness check’ of existing legislation, and encourages swift agreement on its proposal on students and researchers, which has nearly been agreed by the Council and EP (for analysis of this proposal, see here). Also, by the end of May, it will review the ‘Blue Card’ legislation on admission of highly-skilled migrants, referring particularly to attracting investors and increasing mobility between Member States (on implementation of the current law and the issues for reform, see here).

The Commission also suggests a new initiative, to adopt rules on the provision of services by non-EU citizens. There are already provisions on this issue in EU free-trade agreements, but the Commission wants standard rules for all non-EU citizens. An important point here is that these rules should at least in part apply to all Member States, since they concern international trade, an exclusive EU competence which is not subject to any opt-outs.  Arguably that exclusive competence applies to market access issues as distinct from the related immigration rules, where opt-outs should still apply, but this may need to be clarified.

Finally, the Commission refers to visa policy, namely its existing proposal to amend the EU visa code and its pre-existing plan to review the list of countries whose nationals require a visa.  It also suggests giving a modest amount of extra cash to third countries as regards migration management.

Long-term objectives

Without offering a data, the Commission outlines longer-term objectives in three areas. As regards asylum, it suggests that there could be a common code of EU asylum law, mutual recognition of asylum decisions, and a common decision-making process. It is not clear if the latter would involve the Commission or another EU body making asylum decisions, and/or a common court reviewing asylum appeals (following the model of the EU’s planned patent court).

Secondly, as regards border control, the Commission reiterates long-held goals of a common EU border guard, or at least a common coastguard.

Finally, as regards legal migration, the Commission suggests an EU-wide expression of interest system, so that people are applying to all Member States for a job, not just individual States.  

Comments

The Treaties refer to a ‘common’ EU policy on immigration, asylum and border control. But the Commission’s proposed agenda does not start from that final objective and ask itself what is necessary for the EU to achieve it. Rather it starts from the status quo and asks what incremental changes need to be made to it to address specific issues.

On the immediate question of addressing the migrant crisis, the strategy paper essentially implements what EU countries already agreed, apart from the relocation and resettlement proposals. The relocation proposals in particular are probably politically unrealistic, given that Member States over the years have repeatedly refused to adopt binding rules on this issue.

The resettlement proposals are less unreal, since the Commission plans to start with a non-binding measure backed up by extra EU money, which should attract Member States to offer resettlement opportunities. Only if that does not work would the Commission take the unrealistic step of proposing binding rules. This part of the plan is particularly welcome, since it would reduce the number of migrants in need of protection who undertake the unsafe journey to the EU in the first place. However, the numbers involved compared to the totals undertaking that journey are likely to be tiny: the Commission proposal of 20,000 a year by 2020 is modest enough (there were over half a million asylum applications in the EU last year) but is unlikely to be agreed by Member States.

On smuggling legislation, more could be done to exempt humanitarian activities clearly from the rules, but changing the law alone will not stop smugglers. On the other hand there are many legal, political and practical problems facing the EU’s plan to destroy migrant boats. The plan is opposed by the de facto authorities in Libya – the very people whom the EU has to work with to solve the conflict in Libya in the first place.

The plan as regards returns legislation is to make the current rules work more effectively, by agreeing more readmission treaties and carrying out more removal operations. But coupled with the plan to amend asylum law to fast-track assessment of applications from supposed ‘safe countries of origin’, there is a risk that people will be removed to unsafe countries before their need for protection has been properly assessed.

Also as regards asylum, there is a focus on applying existing rules. In principle, this could lead to a significant increase in the degree of harmonisation between Member States, since the second-phase asylum rules have eliminated a lot of the legal divergences that the earlier phase of EU asylum law provided for. However, it depends on the political will of the Commission, which has promised to enforce EU asylum law many times before – and failed to do so every time. There’s no detail of how the enhanced focus on infringement proceedings will work, and until there is, this looks like a promise the Commission is making with its fingers crossed behind its back.

As regards legal migration, more admission of highly-skilled migrants and service providers in areas of economic need would be useful, and admission of tourists, researchers and students could boost the EU economy. Some of the measures to this end are already under discussion. But the Commission makes a fairly weak commitment as regards the enforcement of other EU legislation on legal migration, given that (for instance) many non-EU citizens face barriers to family reunion, and the Commission reported in 2011 that EU laws on long-term residents are not properly applied by Member States.

Finally, the Commission’s long-term plans are interesting but plans along these lines (particularly as regards border guards) have been rejected before by Member States. A particular disappointment here is the failure to suggest early adoption of rules on the transfer of protection of refugees who move between Member States, given that some refugees already have the right to move between EU countries and there is an existing Council of Europe treaty setting out rules on this issue that the EU could use as a template (see the ECRE report on this issue).

On the whole then, the Commission strategy paper is largely a repackaging of things which the EU is already committed to doing or already negotiating, or which are already in place. It shouldn’t be necessary to adopt plans to enforce rules which are already the law, and the intention to do so simply exposes the previous failings of the Commission on this score. It remains to be seen if issuing ‘guidance documents’ has any useful effect in practice (the Commission should commit itself to an independent review of this), and the promises relating to infringement proceedings mean nothing until the Commission tells us what this means, and regularly and openly reports on its practice to this end. The plans for further legislation in the near future are essentially modest, but in places (fast-track asylum assessment and expulsions, directly to more countries of origin) raise serious potential human rights concerns. And the strategy paper concludes with the legal equivalent of a flock of flying pigs.

All this will ultimately lead to another series of modest steps forward toward a common EU policy on borders, immigration and asylum. But it falls short of the significant changes that could be made if there were enough political will in the Commission and the Member States.

 Originally found here: http://eulawanalysis.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/the-commissions-new-eu-migration.html

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The EU response to migrant deaths: protection and prevention – or policy laundering? - professor Steve Peers

Steve Peers

On Monday, EU foreign and interior ministers adopted a ten-point plan in response to the recent huge death toll of migrants crossing the Mediterranean. There will be a summit on Thursday to examine the issue further, and then an EU Commission strategy proposed on May 13^th. But for now, I want to examine the initial plan.

Overall, this is a very disappointing document. It’s not only vague on crucial details but more importantly focusses less on the situation of the migrants (addressing the root causes which cause them to move, and protection from drowning and persecution) and more on border control and repression. One point in the plan constitutes a rather crass example of ‘policy laundering’ – attempting to use a crisis to shove through an essentially unrelated policy objective.

Let’s look at the ten points of the EU plan in turn, then examine the ‘Australian solution’ and the ‘Christians only’ approach which some have suggested. For alternative solutions to the problem, see the proposals of the UN Special Rapporteur on Migrants, the EU's Fundamental Rights Agency, Patrick Kingsley (in the Guardian), Nando Sigona, and myself.

Reinforce the Joint Operations in the Mediterranean, namely Triton and Poseidon, by increasing the financial resources and the number of assets. We will also extend their operational area, allowing us to intervene further, within the mandate of Frontex;

This is the only one of the ten measures related directly to search and rescue, although it’s not clear if this is actually intended to be a search and rescue mission. The mandate of ‘Frontex’ (the EU’s border control agency) concerns border control, not search and rescue as such. Indeed there is no mention of search and rescue here, or in the rest of the plan. Nor is there any express mention in the plan of the recent loss of life. There are no details of the extent of the increase in financial resources and assets, or the extent to which the operational area will increase.

A systematic effort to capture and destroy vessels used by the smugglers. The positive results obtained with the Atalanta operation should inspire us to similar operations against smugglers in the Mediterranean;

The ‘Atalanta’ operation concerns an EU military operation against pirates in the Indian Ocean. It’s clear from press briefings that the intention is to have another military operation regarding the smugglers. This will obviously entail significant costs and raises legal questions about the jurisdiction which the EU Member States have to destroy boats in the waters of third States or the high seas.

EUROPOL, FRONTEX, EASO and EUROJUST will meet regularly and work closely to gather information on smugglers modus operandi, to trace their funds and to assist in their investigation;

These bodies are respectively the EU police cooperation agency, the EU border control agency, the EU asylum support agency and the EU prosecutors’ agency. The asylum support agency has traditionally had little or nothing to do with this issue, and there is a risk that some of its funding is diverted. There is no express commitment to give it extra funds.

EASO to deploy teams in Italy and Greece for joint processing of asylum applications;

This will defray the cost of processing for those Member States and speed up processing times for overburdened administrations. It’s not clear whether this will simply be an application of existing rules which allow EASO to simply support national administrations, or whether there will be a shift to genuine ‘joint processing’ by a group of Member States or the agency as such. That would require fresh legislation.  

Member States to ensure fingerprinting of all migrants;

EU legislation already requires fingerprinting of all short-term visa applicants (once the EU’s Visa Information System is fully applied, in the next year or so), residence permit holders, asylum applicants and persons crossing borders without authorisation. All holders of EU passports (ie EU citizens) must also be fingerprinted. The only gaps here are non-visa nationals coming for short-term visits (ie citizens of countries like the USA and Canada) and irregular migrants who have ‘overstayed’ after a legal entry. However, after the EU’s Visa Information System is fully applied, the second group (overstayers) will simply be a sub-category of the first group (non-visa nationals), since everyone needing a visa will already have been fingerprinted. And proposed legislation establishing an entry-exit system will require the non-visa nationals to be fingerprinted too, although it will take a number of years for that legislation to be agreed and made operational. These various categories of people are subject to different rules as regards how the fingerprint information is stored and used; it’s not clear if the intention is to change those rules.

The very odd thing here is what fingerprinting of ‘all migrants’ has to do with the issue of migrants drowning at sea in an attempt to reach the EU. It would perhaps make sense to reiterate the requirement to fingerprint all those who apply for asylum or attempt to cross the border without authorisation (as all those migrants who attempt to cross the Mediterranean are doing), but the plan clearly refers to ‘all migrants’. So we can only conclude that this is a blatant attempt at policy laundering.

Consider options for an emergency relocation mechanism;

The concept of ‘relocation’ entails moving asylum-seekers and/or recognised refugees from the Member States which have an obligation to consider their claim, or which have recognised their refugee status, to other Member States. It would obviously reduce the pressure on the Member States which receive a significant number of refugee claims from migrants crossing the Mediterranean – most notably Malta, Italy (the island of Lampedusa) and Greece. However, it would entail either suspending the EU’s Dublin rules on asylum responsibility in part (requiring a legislative amendment) or encouraging voluntary offers from Member States which are not responsible under the rules. Both options have been discussed many times over the years with no success (Dublin amendments) or very little success (voluntary offers). The wording used here (‘consider options’) is so underwhelming that little can be expected.

A EU wide voluntary pilot project on resettlement, offering a number of places to persons in need of protection;

‘Resettlement’ is the process of taking some of the people in other (non-EU) countries who need international protection and moving them to the EU. This is the only one of the ten points which offers ‘safe passage’, ie a way for would-be asylum-seekers to enter the EU without running the risk of drowning when crossing the Mediterranean. The ‘number of places’ is not specified, and it should be noted that under EU financial law, a ‘pilot project’ is a short-term programme using only a small amount of money. Furthermore, the project is expressly ‘voluntary’. Overall, it seems that this one form of ‘safe passage’ being offered by the EU is very narrow indeed.

Establish a new return programme for rapid return of irregular migrants coordinated by Frontex from frontline Member States;

EU law specifies that asylum-seekers cannot normally be removed until a final negative decision has been taken upon their application. So this refers to people whose asylum application has definitively failed, or who never made such an application and have no other ground to stay. There are procedural rights in the EU’s Returns Directive for irregular migrants, but there is no mention of them (or the asylum laws) here. Frontex already has a role coordinating joint return flights; the intention is to devote more effort (and presumably resources) to removing people from the EU’s Mediterranean Member States.

Engagement with countries surrounding Libya through a joined effort between the Commission and the EEAS; initiatives in Niger have to be stepped up.

This is the only part of the 10-point plan that hints that the EU’s relations with third countries have a role to play. It isn’t clear what this ‘engagement’ will concern. Will it focus on the conditions in the countries of origin and transit, thereby ensuring that fewer people want to head to the EU in the first place? Or is the EU only concerned with the repressive aspects, such as tracking down smugglers and traffickers?

Deploy Immigration Liaison Officers (ILO) in key third countries, to gather intelligence on migratory flows and strengthen the role of the EU Delegations.

The intention here is to obtain more intelligence on migration flows, although it’s not clear what will be done with that intelligence once it’s obtained. There will be a cost for the EU and/or Member State budgets here.

The Australian solution?

Some have suggested that the EU adopt the supposed ‘Australian solution’, of sending boats to stop the migrants reaching the territory of the EU. In fact this is a highly simplistic understanding of Australian asylum policy.................... READ ON HERE: http://eulawanalysis.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/the-eu-response-to-migrant-deaths.html




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Damages for breach of EU free movement law: an important Irish judgment door Steve Peers (Schadevergoeding)

 

Steve Peers

It’s been well over twenty years since the CJEU established, in the case of Francovich, that individuals could sue Member States in damages for breach of EU law. Yet many of the cases concerned have been brought by businesses for lost profit. The CJEU has never had the opportunity to apply the principles relating to damages claims in a case concerning the free movement of EU citizens.

But in its recent judgment in Ogieriakhi, the Irish High Court delivered a ruling on this issue, awarding over €100,000 to the family member of an EU citizen for breach of EU free movement law. This judgment isn’t a precedent as such outside Ireland, but it is a useful indication of how such claims might be made. So I suggest below how it might be particularly relevant to some of the UK's current breaches of EU free movement law. 

 

(......)

 

 

What are its broader implications? Let’s examine them by applying this case to two other EU free movement issues: the position of EU citizens who move to another Member State to be with their family members, and then seek to return to their own Member State with their family; and the position of those who wish to visit the UK with their third-country national family members, without obtaining a visa.

For the first category of people (often known as Surinder Singh cases), the CJEU clarified last spring (as discussed here) that in principle it should be sufficient for them to spend three months in another Member State exercising free movement rights with their family members.  Then they could return to their home state. The CJEU judgment concerned a Dutch case, and I don’t know what the consequences have been in the Netherlands. But the UK government has continued to apply a ‘centre of life’ test that seems to be clearly more restrictive than the test in the Court’s judgment.

For the second category of cases, the CJEU ruled in December in McCarthy (discussed here) that the family members should not have to obtain a visa, if they had a residence card in their country of origin issued to family members of EU citizens. This was a UK reference, but the UK courts have not followed it up yet. Nor has the UK government changed its practice, as far as I know.

So let’s apply the EU damages principles to these two breaches of EU law. In the first case, the right to return to the UK is based on the Treaty rules on free movement of people, which clearly aim to confer rights on individuals. Any delay in returning to the UK with family members is in principle caused by the UK’s wrongful application of EU law, although there might be other reasons in individual cases why people delayed their return (finding work back in the UK, finishing school years, and so on). As for the ‘sufficiently serious’ requirement, it is clearly met since the Court’s ruling last year, but it harder to argue that it applied before that date, due to the lack of legislation on this issue and the lack of clarity before the Court’s judgment. The calculation of damages due to the UK’s breach of EU law will depend on each case, and it might be harder in many cases to show losses as compared to the Ogieriakhi judgment, where the total absence of work was solely attributable to breach of EU law, and the resulting damages were fairly easy to calculate.

In the second case, the right to visit the UK without a visa is clearly a rule intending to confer rights on individuals. Any costs incurred to get a visa (mainly travel to a consulate) are clearly directly attributable to the breach of EU law by the UK. The breach of EU law is sufficiently serious since the McCarthy judgment, but in this case it is arguably sufficiently serious beforehand. It is blatantly obvious from the wording of the citizens’ Directive that third-country national family members with a residence card do not need a visa, and there is no provision in the Directive for the UK practice of requiring a family permit as a separate requirement for a visa exemption. Equally it was clear from prior CJEU case law that the concept of ‘abuse of rights’ could only apply in individual cases.

As always on this blog, the suggestions above do not constitute legal advice, and anyone considering legal action should consult a lawyer (unless they are sure that they can represent themselves as well as Mr. Ogieriakhi did). I don’t practice law, so this isn’t an attempt to drum up work for myself. Rather my concern is not only for the individuals who ought to be compensated for the losses caused by the illegal actions of the UK, but also for the broader principle of the rule of law. It simply is not acceptable for the UK government to flout its legal obligations as long as it has, and the more legal proceedings aiming to pressure it to comply with those obligations, the better.

 

 

Lees hier verder op zijn weblog: http://eulawanalysis.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/damages-for-breach-of-eu-free-movement.html

Interessant artikel? Deel het eens met uw netwerk en help mee met het verspreiden van de bekendheid van dit blog. Er staan wellicht nog meer artikelen op dit weblog die u zullen boeien. Kijk gerust eens rond. Zelf graag wat willen plaatsen? Mail dan webmaster@vreemdelingenrecht.com In verband met geldwolven die denken geld te kunnen claimen op krantenartikelen die op een blog als deze worden geplaatst maar na meestal een dag voor de krantenlezers aan leeswaardigheid hebben ingeboet terwijl wij vreemdelingenrecht specialisten ze soms wel nog jaren gebruiken om er een kopie van te maken voor een zaak ga ik over tot het plaatsen van alleen het eerste stukje. Ja ik weet het: de kans dat u doorklikt is geringer dan wanneer het hele artikel hier staat en een kopie van het orgineel maken handig kan zijn voor uw zaak. Wilt u zelf wat overnemen van dit weblog. Dat mag. Zet er alleen even een link bij naar het desbetreffende artikel zodat mensen niet alleen dat wat u knipt en plakt kunnen lezen maar dat ook kunnen doen in de context.

Steve Peers: Amending EU free movement law: What are the legal limits?

Steve Peers

Much public debate in recent weeks has centred upon the possible amendment of EU rules on the free movement of people. In particular, the think-tank Open Europe and the UK Labour party have set out policies on this issue, and Prime Minister David Cameron is expected to make an announcement of his views soon. While most of the discussion focuses on the political and economic aspects of these proposals, there is also an important legal dimension to the debate, because EU law determines how easy (or difficult) it would be to put any potential changes into effect.

In particular, there are three principal ways to change the EU free movement rules: (a) by changing national law, while still remaining consistent with EU law; (b) by changing EU legislation; or (c) by amending the EU Treaties. The first course of action needs only (at most) a national parliamentary majority; the second course of action needs a Commission proposal and support from the European Parliament and a qualified majority in the Council; but the third route needs unanimous support from all 28 Member States’ governments, then ratification in national parliaments.

So it’s important to know which of these categories the proposed reforms fall into. For the reasons set out in this blog post, some of the proposals of Open Europe fall into the second category (EU legislative amendment). But contrary to their arguments, the most significant proposals made by Open Europe fall into the third category (Treaty amendment), making them much more difficult to accomplish than their authors suggest. 


Continue reading here / lees hier verder: http://eulawanalysis.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/amending-eu-free-movement-law-what-are.html







Interessant artikel? Deel het eens met uw netwerk en help mee met het verspreiden van de bekendheid van dit blog. Er staan wellicht nog meer artikelen op dit weblog die u zullen boeien. Kijk gerust eens rond. Zelf graag wat willen plaatsen? Mail dan webmaster@vreemdelingenrecht.com In verband met geldwolven die denken geld te kunnen claimen op krantenartikelen die op een blog als deze worden geplaatst maar na meestal een dag voor de krantenlezers aan leeswaardigheid hebben ingeboet terwijl wij vreemdelingenrecht specialisten ze soms wel nog jaren gebruiken om er een kopie van te maken voor een zaak ga ik over tot het plaatsen van alleen het eerste stukje. Ja ik weet het: de kans dat u doorklikt is geringer dan wanneer het hele artikel hier staat en een kopie van het orgineel maken handig kan zijn voor uw zaak. Wilt u zelf wat overnemen van dit weblog. Dat mag. Zet er alleen even een link bij naar het desbetreffende artikel zodat mensen niet alleen dat wat u knipt en plakt kunnen lezen maar dat ook kunnen doen in de context.

"In light of the Dano judgment, when can unemployed EU citizens be expelled?" door Britse professor Steve Peers

 

Steve Peers

Yesterday’s important CJEU judgment in Dano concerned an application for access to benefits, not expulsion. So it has no direct impact upon the latter issue. Nevertheless, it is possible that the judgment has an indirect impact on that issue, due to the Court’s interpretation of the EU citizens’ Directive.

Earlier this year, I wrote a detailed blog post on the issue of when unemployment could justify expulsions and entry bans of EU citizens. The following supplements that analysis in light of the Dano judgment.   

Rules on expulsion

The bulk of the rules on expulsion (and also denial of entry or exit) appear in Title VI of the EU citizens’ Directive, Articles 27-33. These rules concern expulsions or entry bans on grounds of ‘public policy, public security or public health’. However, they can’t be used to justify expulsions or entry bans of unemployed people, because Article 27(1) says that they ‘shall not be invoked to serve economic ends’. 

Continue here: http://eulawanalysis.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/in-light-of-dano-judgment-when-can.html




Interessant artikel? Deel het eens met uw netwerk en help mee met het verspreiden van de bekendheid van dit blog. Er staan wellicht nog meer artikelen op dit weblog die u zullen boeien. Kijk gerust eens rond. Zelf graag wat willen plaatsen? Mail dan webmaster@vreemdelingenrecht.com In verband met geldwolven die denken geld te kunnen claimen op krantenartikelen die op een blog als deze worden geplaatst maar na meestal een dag voor de krantenlezers aan leeswaardigheid hebben ingeboet terwijl wij vreemdelingenrecht specialisten ze soms wel nog jaren gebruiken om er een kopie van te maken voor een zaak ga ik over tot het plaatsen van alleen het eerste stukje. Ja ik weet het: de kans dat u doorklikt is geringer dan wanneer het hele artikel hier staat en een kopie van het orgineel maken handig kan zijn voor uw zaak. Wilt u zelf wat overnemen van dit weblog. Dat mag. Zet er alleen even een link bij naar het desbetreffende artikel zodat mensen niet alleen dat wat u knipt en plakt kunnen lezen maar dat ook kunnen doen in de context.