Free movement of persons and residence : Directive 2004/38

Member States had until April 30th 2006 to implement Directive 2004/38/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of April 29th 2004 on the right of citizens of the Union and their family members to move and reside freely within the territory of the Member States.

To mark the occasion, the Commission has issued two press releases. The first, brief one contains a very succinct summary of the Directive. The second, fuller one gives more detail and a few practical examples of the Directive should work.

But why two, different press releases ? They are not particularly well written : How can a "right" have "more transparency" ? At least they don't contradict each other.

What the press releases seem to omit to mention is that most member States appear not to have implemented the Directive.

Comments

[Bondwoman]

Different users for the two types of press releases, I guess. One for the more general press, one for the specialist EU press and online news aggregators. A sort of halfway house to a com doc report, I've always thought, these Memo thingies.

[Gabriel Payne]

Hi
Can you help with the following please,

The UK Gov. has decided not to pursue deportation proceedings against Irish Nationals. Therefore non Irish EU nationals will be treated differently i.e. they will be deported. Is this form of discrimination permissible under EU Law? See http://www.guardian.co.uk/prisons/story/0,,2016943,00.html

Regards

G Payne

[UK expert]

Article 12 of the EC Treaty bans all forms of discrimination on the grounds of nationality. However, this does not extend to reverse dicsrimination where EU citizens may be treated better than nationals. If Irish citizens are granted an absolute right to non-deportation, then this would necessarily have to be extended to all EU nationals (see wording of Article 12 that prohibits the less favourable treatment of EU citizens compared to nationals). Directive 2004/38 sets out the conditions under which EU nationals may be deported. If British nationals cannot be deported and Irish nationals cannot be deported out of the UK, but EU nationals can, then this will be discrimination.
http://europa.eu.int/eur-lex/lex/en/treaties/dat/12002E/htm/C_2002325EN.003301.html

[Elia Ram]

Iam the non EU wife of a British citizen. We have lived in Italy for 5 months, I don't have thepremission to stay yet, as the authorities haven't got around to it. The problem is that my husband and I want to holiday in the Czech Repuclic and the Czech embassy in Milan insists I have to have a tourist visa, which it will grant as it does to any nonEU national. i know they are wrong, after having read Directive 2004/38/EC of the European Parliament but I do not know what to do about it. Any ideas?

[Enrique]

It is normal and logical that the Czech Republic requires visa albeit spouse of British citizen. UK visa requires all non-EU, whether married or unmarried, whether they are residents or non-residents, and much more difficult for UK visa for the Czech Republic, United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland have what they want