Citizens Without Borders – a study on the application of freedom of movement and residence rights of EU citizens and their family members.
The premise of the research was the alarming awareness
shared by the project partners that in many Member States European citizens’
right to free movement and residence was not fully observed despite the formal
transposition of the Directive.
The research which was carried out in the Czech Republic,
France, Italy, Spain and Romania draws from diverse data sources such as
official national documents and reports released by public entities as well as
non-profit organizations; interviews with legal practitioners, experts in the
field, local civil servants, officers of police departments, civil servants of
the Ministry of the Interior and other members of NGOs. All the collected data
has been integrated with another essential source of information - European
citizens, the data was drawn from the requests for assistance, claims and
complaints addressed to partner organizations’ help-desks.
Main findings of the research:
The study points out that the Directive is still misapplied
in every partner country in the project as far as non-EU family members’ right
to entry into EU territory is concerned, especially due to the unjustified
request of an entry visa for family-reunification and long delays in
applications processing. In the case of the right to residence administrative
formalities still constitute severe obstacles to the fulfillment of this right.
In many countries the notion of sufficient resources is still controversial and
represents a serious problem in applying for registration certificates, while
in some other countries it is difficult to provide an administrative evidence
of the status of dependent family members. In regards to the topic of family
members, in countries such as France, Italy and Spain, spouses find severe
obstacles in getting residence cards. Problems arise not only for couples who
live together or same sex spouses, whose rights are recognized only after a court
decision, but often for married couples as well, who are constantly confronted
with the police suspicions of fraudulent marriage.
Expulsion procedures are another troublesome area which some
Member States do not seem to handle with the required accuracy. It has been
noted that in the presence of a criminal conviction an offender quite often faces
automatic expulsion without any consideration of any “present and sufficiently
serious threat affecting one of the fundamental interests of the society of
the host Member State”.
On the whole, a general lack of information on the subject has
been observed. The study registered a deeply insufficient level of information
both among legal practitioners and among EU citizens themselves concerning the
knowledge of legislation, rights and duties related to freedom of movement and
right to residency in EU Member States.
The final chapter aims at connecting research findings with
Citizens Without Borders’ future actions in the attempt to draw up concrete solutions
for the enforcement of EU citizens’ rights. For this reason the chapter
provides some specific recommendations arising from the exchange of positive
procedures existing in some countries.
The English version of the study is available in the section
“For download”.
The study can also be downloaded in other languages here: http://www.meltingpot.org/+-CitizensWithoutBorders-+.html