7. FREE MOVEMENT OF EU
CITIZENS AND THEIR FAMILY MEMBERS WITHIN THE EU
| (23696)
10572/02
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| Draft Directive on the right of citizens of the Union and their family members to move and reside freely within the territory of the Member States.
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| Legal base: | Articles 12,18(2), 40 ,44 and 52 EC; co-decision; unanimity
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| Basis of consideration: | Minister's letter of 5 November 2002
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| Previous Committee Report: | HC 152-xxxviii (2001-02), paragraph 11 (16 October 2002)
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| To be discussed in Council: | No date set
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| Committee's assessment: | Politically important
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| Committee's decision: | Not cleared; information on progress requested
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Background
7.1
This proposal aims to consolidate existing legislation and case
law as well as to extend the law in certain areas. When we last
considered it (in October) we noted that negotiations seemed to
be progressing slowly, and that few of the Government's concerns
had been met. We reminded the Minister that we were still waiting
for comment on our view that there was a difficult balance to
be struck between the concept of EU citizenship and legitimate
national interests, and we kept the document under scrutiny in
the expectation of receiving a new text early in the new year.
The Minister's letter
7.2
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Race Equality,
Community Policy and European and International Policy (Lord Filkin)
has now written to us, apologising for not having commented earlier
on our view. He agrees that it is difficult to reconcile the
concept of EU citizenship with legitimate national interests.
He tells us, however, that he fully supports the draft Directive
because it will simplify administrative procedures for EU citizens
and their family members, and will give them increased rights
and protections when they move between Member States. As a result,
EU citizens will be brought closer together and the EU itself
will be made more open, understandable and relevant to its citizens'
daily lives.
7.3
The Minister continues:
"In order to maintain the positive spirit of the draft Directive,
in negotiations to date my officials have supported a number of
its provisions which have extended the rights of EU nationals
and their family members beyond those in current EC law. For
instance, the draft Directive proposes that the direct relatives
of an EU national student or their married or unmarried partner
should be able to join the student in a host Member State. Current
EC law only provides for an EU student's spouse and children.
Although we feel that there should be a dependency requirement
for these more distant family members, we have not opposed the
principle that EU national students should have these increased
rights of family reunification. Similarly, we have agreed with
a proposal in the draft Directive that would allow students to
be granted permanent residence in the UK after four years, even
though this goes beyond current provisions in the UK for both
EU and foreign nationals."
7.4
The Minister then says:
"However, while we have made these, and other, concessions
in the interests of promoting the concept of EU citizenship, I
cannot support measures in the draft Directive which would lead
to undue public expenditure costs or create routes for foreign
nationals to abuse our immigration controls."
He explains that, for this reason, he is not in favour of the
provision which would prevent the Government removing EU nationals
and their family members once they had obtained permanent residence
after four years in the UK under the draft Directive. He states
that, while the Government has not used the power at all in recent
years, it needs to be able to exclude and remove "truly undesirable"
EU nationals and their third country national family members should
it choose to do so. The Minister adds:
"You may be reassured to know that we would only use this
power when the person in question had been convicted of a serious
offence carrying a lengthy custodial sentence, and only then when
the particular circumstances of the case were exceptional. I
do not consider that this approach is incompatible with the spirit
of the draft Directive."
Conclusion
7.5
We thank the Minister for his letter. It is encouraging to
learn that the UK is maintaining the positive spirit of the draft
Directive by supporting some extension of the rights of EU nationals
and their family members, and we understand the argument for retaining
the power to remove EU nationals on grounds of public policy or
public security.
7.6
We shall continue to hold the proposal under scrutiny until
we know more about the progress of negotiations.
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