THE EUROPEAN Commission said yesterday it would start the process that could lead to court action against most EU member states for failing to grant rights to long-term residents from countries outside the bloc.
“We will start infringement procedures in the coming months, if these rights are still not implemented,” said Friso Roscam Abbing, European Commission justice and home affairs spokesman.
The rules, unanimously backed by member states in November 2003, will give third-country nationals the right to five-year residency and work permits after they have lived in a European Union country for five years.
The deadline for implementation is Monday.
The European Commission estimates about 10 million legal residents in the EU would benefit from the new legislation, which would also allow those holding five-year resident status in one member state to live in another.
Only five member states – Austria, Poland, Slovenia, Lithuania and the Slovak Republic – have introduced the EU rules into their national legislation and notified Brussels of the change, the EU executive said.
Britain, Ireland and Denmark have opted out from EU legislation on immigration and are not bound by the new rules, and the remaining 17 EU member states are behind schedule.
Most immigration measures agreed by EU member states are designed to fight illegal migration and control the return to their own countries of illegal immigrants. In the new legislation on long-term residents’ rights, EU member states kept a number of safeguards, chiefly the possibility of imposing restrictions on the right of long-term immigrants from other member states to gain access to the host country’s labour market.
European Justice Commissioner Franco Frattini made a new attempt to ease economic migration in December, saying the EU should have special rules to attract highly skilled workers from outside the bloc and make it easier for non-EU migrants to hold seasonal jobs.
Infringement procedures start with the Commission sending letters to member states and can result in a state being taken before the European Court of Justice.
The use of such procedures is common in areas such as state aid, obstacles to creating a single EU market and the environment, but rare in justice and home affairs.
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