Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2012-02-16-Speech-4-010-000"
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"en.20120216.5.4-010-000"2
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"Mr President, I am pleased to have the opportunity to reply to the question put to the Commission by your House and by your rapporteur, Juan Fernando López Aguilar, and to give you the opinion of my colleague, Cecilia Malmström, on this subject, for which she is responsible.
My third and final point is that the Green Paper invites interested parties to specify whether or not guarantees should be introduced so as to ensure that integration measures and fees are not used as a means to restrict the right to family reunification
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, regarding forced marriages and fraudulent marriages, the Green Paper invites interested parties to provide further information to the Commission so that any problems can be solved in a more targeted way. On the one hand, the Commission is making every effort in the Green Paper to determine whether or not there is a link between forced marriages and the minimum age of the spouse, as a number of Member States have argued. On the other hand, it is asking for statistics on marriages of convenience that are known to have taken place and information on how the provisions covering checks and inspections could be more effective.
Finally, I would like to stress the open nature of this consultation. Depending on the results of the consultation, the Commission will decide what needs to be done. Various options are available. Interpretative guidelines are an option and could be an effective instrument if accompanied by other tools, such as groups of experts and an in-depth dialogue with each Member State.
As a follow-up to the Green Paper, in the second quarter of 2012, the European Migration Network will complete a targeted study to feed into the consultation process and the subsequent action taken. Whatever form the follow-up action will take, the Commission will ensure the correct implementation of the current EU rules on family reunification. If necessary, it will be prepared to open infringement proceedings.
Honourable Members, family reunification accounts for a large share of legal immigration in the European Union. Family reunification is decreasing, falling from 50% of legal migration in the 2000s to one third today. The migrants covered by the directive – that is to say, third-country nationals joining a non-EU citizen – account for 21% of all permits issued – 500 000 people for our 27 Member States in 2010.
I would like briefly to mention the content of the Green Paper and the issues it raises on the scope, the conditions required to exercise the right to reunification, most notably integration measures, and problems regarding procedure. There are also a number of issues relating to possible ways to prevent fraud and marriages of convenience, as well as the rules relating to fees.
In its 2008 report on the Family Reunification Directive, the Commission had already noted specific problems concerning implementation at national level, for example, cases in which visas were not issued in a simplified procedure to a person admitted as a family member. The Commission also identified shortcomings in the directive, where some of its provisions were too vague, for example, as regards the possibility of applying certain conditions, such as integration measures.
The Member States called on the Commission, both at the time the European Pact on Immigration and Asylum was adopted in 2008, and in the Stockholm Programme in 2009, to continue developing this policy at EU level by giving special consideration to integration. The tendency of a number of Member States to apply stricter rules because of – in their opinion – problems of integration and abuse, has reignited the debate.
Taking all these elements into account, the Commission considered it appropriate to organise an open consultation at EU level. The Green Paper represents the most participatory approach. It ensures that all interested parties have the opportunity to be involved and to express their point of view. It also leaves us the choice of whether or not to act subsequently and as to the form that such action should take.
Honourable Members, with regard to your questions on human and fundamental rights, I would like, on behalf of Ms Malmström, to make three points.
Firstly, the directive recognises the right to family reunification as a necessary way of making family life possible. Secondly, as confirmed by the European Court of Justice, the directive must be applied in accordance with the Charter of Fundamental Rights and in conformity with this Charter. This is particularly so with regard to the right to respect for family life, the right to marry, the right to found a family, and the right of a child to maintain a personal relationship with both his or her parents.
The European Court of Justice confirmed in another judgment that the optional conditions laid down in the directive – for example, requiring the applicant for reunification to have sufficient financial resources – must be applied on a restricted basis so as not to interfere with the right to family reunification."@en1
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