acme4242 wrote:Press Release July 2nd 2009
>here<
download New Guidelines
>here<
Hi acme4242,
thank you for these links
IMHO the guidelines show how much the commission is NOT aware of what this law means for affected people on the ground:
What do the Guidelines aim to achieve?
This Communication aims to provide guidance to Member States on how to apply correctly Directive 2004/38. The objective is to make more effective the application of the Directive on the ground and to bring a real improvement for all EU citizens.
With the Guidelines the Commission intends to offer information and assistance to both Member States and EU citizens on issues identified as problematic in transposition or application.
The law is abundantly clear, and those countries who choose to deliberately ignore it (especially the UK and Ireland, but also others) also made it abundantly clear that they knowingly ignore the law and intend to do so in the future.
They need pressure, not "guidance".
As for myself (and probably most people in this forum), we do not need to "identify" problematic issues "in transposition or application", we need those issues solved.
How does the citizen benefit from the Guidelines?
The guidelines help citizens to obtain more clarity on a number of issues. The guidelines provide transparency on some notions such as sufficient resources. Moreover, by providing clarity on the notions of public policy and public security and on the proportionality assessment, citizens are in a better position to assess whether their rights are being respected.
We do not need to "assess whether (our) rights are being respected", we are clear and conscious that they are NOT respected.
What we need is a way to enforce our rights - immediately, and not at some time in the remote future.
(For example my wife and I would like to visit London together NOW, and not in 5 or 10 years...)
Are the Guidelines binding?
No. The Guidelines state the views of the Commission and are without prejudice to the case-law of the Court of Justice.
The guidelines do not contain any assessment of legislation and practices in place in the Member States.
Of course "guidelines" are not binding, and this is also why they are worthless. They will not change anything, while still someone (we all?) paid someone in Brussels to write this stuff...
Just to equally write something constructive:
- I plea for a card, pretty much as per Article 10 of 2004/38/EC, which all EU-family-members get once they are married to an EU-citizen. (No matter where they live, even if outside the EU).
- This card should look the same throughout all member-states.
- It should allow entry into all member-states for stays up to 3 months, as such being equal to a permanent Visa for all EU-member-states
- The card should be checked on each entry into the EU (together with the passport), to avoid abuse the card should be cancelled if a marriage is dissolved.
Sidenote: This would NOT give any additional rights compared to the ones which already exist, it would merely add a hassle-free and unambiguous way to easily prove rights held...
Why is the Commission not simply amending the Directive?
Given the unsatisfactory state of implementation of the Directive, the Commission is of the opinion that it would be detrimental to propose amendments to the Directive at this stage. The main problems that have been identified can be solved through better implementation of the Directive.
Exactly this is NOT true, at least it cannot be solved at short notice. But as this is Bruxelle's stance on things we will continue to suffer
Regards from Zürich, Christian