Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-09-06-Speech-3-048"
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".
Mr President, on behalf of the Commission, I would like first of all to congratulate Mrs Boumediene-Thiery and all those who have taken part in this debate. Indeed, I think that, for the Commission, the establishment of European citizenship has created a new legal and political environment and, for our part, we intend to draw all the practical lessons we can both in the legislative field and in the field of day-to-day public administration. The Commission is counting a great deal on the support of the European Parliament when the time comes.
With regard to the motion for a resolution that you have just presented, I would simply like to address two or three comments directed at the Commission. The three directives on the right of residence of the non-economically active have, I am sure, enabled thousands of European Union citizens to benefit from this right without encountering any particular problems. However, there are still cases where these directives are incorrectly applied. I can assure you that the Commission always intervenes – and tries to do so strictly under all circumstances – even if its intervention is not always obvious. If agreement is not reached, the Commission does not hesitate to notify Reasoned Opinions to the Member States concerned. Citizens’ complaints that meet with a satisfactory administrative response through extra-judicial procedures can be counted in their hundreds.
The action of the Commission also applies to the laws of Member States. One could, in my view, cite several cases where this intervention has brought about modification of the legislation of Member States and sometimes even the examination, by the Court of Justice, of issues to which it has provided positive solutions. There is no shortage of examples either concerning the Member States’ improper use of the notion of public order, especially that leading to the expulsion from their territory of nationals from other Member States. I can assure you, however, that the number of these cases is now very low and that, with regard to such cases, the European Commission never fails to take the necessary measures pursuant to Community law.
Nevertheless, it cannot be claimed that the strict application of Community law is sufficient to eliminate obstacles to the free movement of European Union citizens, bearing in mind the huge number of obstacles that persist due to the shortcomings in Community law. These shortcomings have already been identified in the second report by the Commission on European citizenship and in the report by the High Level Group headed by Simone Veil, which was presented to the Commission in 1997.
Moreover, I would like to draw your attention to the fact that this morning we debated the directive on family reunification and that the Tampere Conclusions require the Commission to present a proposal on the recognition of entry, admission and residence conditions and on the legal status of third-country nationals within the European Union legally. We are currently working on this.
For all these reasons, the Commission shares the opinion expressed by several Members of this House on the need for a global reworking of existing texts within the context of a single legal instrument, which will organise and guarantee the unimpeded exercise of the freedom of movement and residence. This reworking, which moreover is included in the Commission action programme for 2000, is already in preparation. It is based on the idea that entitlement to the right of free movement and residence must be dissociated from any prior reference to the economic situation of the beneficiaries in order to be attached henceforth to a concept and a status resulting directly from the importance of European citizenship.
The unique status of a European Union citizen necessarily creates the need for a unique general system of movement and residence in response to the demand to enrich the content of European citizenship in accordance with the political aspirations of the Union."@en1
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