EU Petition//free shenghen travel for residents of ireland

[luckyfish]

Dear all,

I would like to send petition to the European Parliament in order to bring attention to the fact that legal residents of Ireland who hold Irish registration GNIB cards are not able to travel freely within the Shenghen area, unlike legal residents of other EU member states within Shenghen.

Similar legislation (although unfortunately not always enforced) already exists for spouses of EU citizens who have the 4EUFam card.
I am writing petition in support of free movement for all legal residents of Ireland regardless of stamp in order to improve this situation which is seemingly a side-effect of Ireland's opting out of the Shenghen agreement.

Will you be willing to support this?

Is it necessary to be an EU citizen for my petition to be considered?
Although I am not an EU citizen at the moment, I could ask a friend to send it if I have to.

Thanks for your attention and advise.

[ca.funke]

Hi luckyfish,

although your cause is noble, I think the EU is the incorrect addressee...

Ireland and the UK are part of the Schengen-Agreement, but they do not implement it in full. (Read full details >>here<<)

Ireland and the UK are invited to join into Schegen in full, should they so wish.

Thus your petition should go mainly to the UK, as the only thing stopping Ireland from joining into Schengen is the >>Common-Travel-Area<< land-border with the UK.

The somewhat simplified but nearly full version is: As long as the UK does not join Schengen, Ireland cannot join.

The EU is aware of this matter and the problems it brings about, through many emails, complaints and/or petitions which you can also find in this forum, but they are not reacting in any meaningful way.

Asking the EU to have Ireland and the UK join Schengen in full would thus be futile, as this is what the EU wants and offered already.

IMHO asking the UK and Ireland to take up the offer to join would be the way to go... And for that I wish you all the luck in the world...

...btw: My personal belief is that it won´t happen in the near future. I personally moved away from Ireland and to Switzerland (which is not EU but Schengen), so I can finally move freely and visit my parents (in Belgium) together with my Lebanese wife, whenever we please. Taking this step really solved so many problems for us that I will never even remotely consider moving back to Eire or the UK I wish you more luck in your personal endavours...

[Obie]

Even the UK house of Lords has critcised the UK's reluctance to join Schengen, fully, and the adverse effect it has on combating Criminal activities, Terrorism and the UK's inability to access the SIS. It also found no basis in support of the myth or argument that, joining Schengen will facilitate illegal immigration, as most people in the UK are led to believe.

I think the petitioner is wasting her time as nothing fruitful will come out of this.

[luckyfish]

Hi ca.funke,

I am aware of Ireland's long-living reluctance to implement Shenghen and the reasons behind it.

This is why I am trying to address not Ireland's participation in the agreement, but a slightly different issue that EU allows free movement of persons with GNIB cards issued by Ireland regardless of stamp number, in exactly the same way like Switzerland used to accept them before January 2009. I used to travel to Switzerland with a GNIB card stamp 1 which did not arise any problems, but now this is not possible anymore.

Switzerland which is now a Shenghen country and already has experience of accepting those cards proves how easily this can be put to practice. In order for this to work no action is required from the Irish government, no borders need to be constructed, this is why I am addressing the EU parliament.

It is a matter of simple formality of instructing the airport workers to accept GNIB cards which will also automatically improve rights of people with 4EUFam as they will no longer need to present the marriage certificate and not necessarily have to travel with their spouse.

Thanks for the advice to move country, actually I am thinking of this. Just would like to do something useful while I am still here and contribute to the work people are doing to solve this problem.
I have an impression that most letters to Irish government and EU petitions are send in favor of Ireland implementing Shengehn, which would surely be the best thing to do... however taking into account how stubborn the Irish government seems to be, I am seeking attention of the EU parliament instead and asking it to recognize GNIB cards as a means of travel, which EU is in power to do.

[ca.funke]

Hi luckyfish,

I was in a similar position (Belgian/Lebanese, with 4EUFAM), so don´t get me wrong - I don´t want to disillusion you. Just talking of my experiences.

You won´t be lucky with your request asking the EU to accept Irish residence-cards of all stamps for entry into Schengen.

Reason is that "Schengen" asks memberstates to know who enters and leaves its territorries. As such Visa-Free entry based on Irish residence-permits would contradict that, as they wouldn´t know who´s coming beforehand, which is exactly what they don´t want.

This is also the reason why Switzerland is no longer allowed to accept Irish residence-permits for entry, even if they´d want to. (Which causes some illogical consequences, as can be read >>here<<)

I still wish you luck, but you are trying nothing less than yielding Schengen totally worthless. I guess asking the UK and Ireland to join Schengen (which would solve all associated problems) has a higher probability of happening than asking Schengen to change its principles, just because of the UK and Ireland´s stubbornness...

Good luck anyway!

[86ti]

I still wish you luck, but you are trying nothing less than yielding Schengen totally worthless. I guess asking the UK and Ireland to join Schengen (which would solve all associated problems) has a higher probability of happening than asking Schengen to change its principles, just because of the UK and Ireland´s stubbornness...

It is also the political goal of the European Union to achieve mutuality of visa requirements. What about Ireland accepting Schengen residence permits?

[korvin]

Hi lads.

I totally support luckyfish's idea.
Well done - go forward with it and god luck!

Small suggestion:
It'll be great to have a website for registering of people who'd like to sign under such a petition and than to submit this letter to europarlament with a tone of names of real people who're asking to consider this issue...

[korvin]

...What about Ireland accepting Schengen residence permits?

it'll be great - start your own petition!

P.S.: my friends living in Czech Republic are annoyed with requirement to apply for Irish visa each time they are planning to visit me - I believe you'll also find loads of supporters for this idea.

[ca.funke]

...What about Ireland accepting Schengen residence permits?

Lodged a complaint against Ireland not accepting 4EUFam-equivalent from Europe, which they have to accept already but simply do not. The Commission didn´t even reply.

...with a tone of names of real people who're asking to consider this issue...

I was hoping that in this forum people are inerested in such topics and more prone to send their support to the parliament than an average citizen.

My petition in this regard, covering the pretty similar topic of Visa-Free travel for EU-family-members, got 3 (three) signatures.

Not exactly the turnout I was hoping for. Wishing you more luck in your advertising-efforts!

[86ti]

...What about Ireland accepting Schengen residence permits?

it'll be great - start your own petition!

No. The point that I am trying to make here is that this can only be solved in mutual agreement and not unilaterally, i.e. one single Schenge zone.

[86ti]

...What about Ireland accepting Schengen residence permits?

Lodged a complaint against Ireland not accepting 4EUFam-equivalent from Europe, which they have to accept already but simply do not.

I think the question here was allowing several/all kinds of residence permits not just Article 10 residence cards.

[luckyfish]

86ti, this is a very good point!
I agree that the wording should be more like "mutual acceptance of residence cards issued by EEA countries.".