Immigration

European Court rules against Irish immigration restriction

Europe's highest court struck down an Irish law that restricted the free movement of spouses of European Union citizens who aren't from a country in the 27- nation bloc.

The European Court of Justice said spouses are allowed to move and live with EU citizens without having been a lawful resident in the bloc.

The ruling comes as the EU struggles to harmonize divergent immigration rules. The bloc is trying to balance the need for migrants to fill labor shortages in some industries while preventing social and economic problems linked with large-scale immigration.

“The right of a national of a non-member country who is a family member of a Union citizen to accompany or join that citizen cannot be made conditional on prior lawful residence in another member state,” the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg said in an e-mailed statement today.

Under an EU rule, citizens and their family members can move freely as long as they're not a burden on that nation's social security system. Ireland added a restriction that only spouses that have already lawfully resided in another EU nation can move with EU family members.

The court ruling stems from four Irish cases in which a non- EU member national arrived in Ireland and applied for asylum. The applications were refused. While in Ireland, the non-EU nationals married EU citizens and then applied for a residence card. Ireland rejected the requests, saying that the nationals must have already been a legal resident in another EU nation.

The court said the Irish restriction doesn't comply with the EU directive on the free movement of citizens.

“As regards family members of a European Union citizen, the application of the directive is not conditional on their having previously resided in a member state,” the court said in the statement.

(Published by Bloomberg - july 25, 2008)