EU DIRECTIVE ON LONG-TERM
RESIDENCE
Council Directive 2003/109/EC
of 25 November 2003 concerning the status of third-country nationals who
are long-term residents
By creating a single status for
long-term resident third-country nationals, the Directive approximates the
laws of the Member States and ensures equal treatment throughout the
Union, whatever the Member State of residence.
The Directive will apply to
all third-country nationals residing legally in the territory of a
Member State. Some categories of individual will be excluded from its
scope because their situation is precarious or because they are
resident on a short-term basis (asylum seekers awaiting a decision on
their status, seasonal workers, persons who have been granted
temporary protection or a subsidiary form of protection, persons who
have been granted a permit to pursue studies or vocational training).
The Member States must
apply the Directive in accordance with the principle of
non-discrimination pursuant to Article 13 of the EC Treaty and Article
21 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.
For the purposes of this
proposal, the following definitions will apply:
-
third-country national:
any person who is not a citizen of one of the Member States of the
European Community;
-
long-term resident:
any third-country national who has the status provided for in the
Directive;
-
first Member State:
the Member State which granted long-term resident status;
-
second Member State:
any Member State other than the one which granted long-term resident
status;
-
family members:
persons defined as family members by the Directive on the right to
family reunification;
-
refugee: any
person enjoying refugee status within the meaning of the Geneva
Convention;
-
long-term residence
permit: the permit issued by a Member State on the acquisition
of long-term resident status.
Long-term resident status
Member State will have to
recognise long-term resident status after five years' continuous legal
residence. Absences from the Member State for less than six months or for
specific reasons (military service, secondment for work purposes, serious
illness, maternity, research or studies) will be regarded as not
interrupting the period of residence.
In order to obtain long-term
resident status, third-country nationals must prove that they have:
Member States may require
third-country nationals to comply with further integration conditions
(such as language proficiency).
Member States may refuse to
grant long-term resident status on grounds of public policy or public
security.
The competent authority must
take a decision on whether to grant long-term resident status no more than
six months after the application is lodged. Decisions to reject an
application must be notified in writing to the person concerned, stating
the reasons and indicating the redress procedures available and the
deadline for action on the part of the applicant. Long-term residents will
receive a resident permit that is standard for all Member States, valid
for ten years and renewable automatically.
Long-term resident status may
be withdrawn only on certain grounds which are set out in the Directive
(absence from the territory for more than two years, fraudulent
acquisition of the status).
Persons who have acquired
long-term resident status will enjoy equal treatment with nationals as
regards:
-
access to paid and unpaid
employment, conditions of employment and working conditions (working
hours, health and safety standards, holiday entitlements, remuneration
and dismissal);
-
education and vocational
training, recognition of qualifications;
-
welfare benefits (family
allowances, retirement pensions, etc.) and sickness insurance;
-
social assistance (minimum
income support or retirement pensions, free health care, etc.);
-
social benefits, tax relief,
access to goods and services;
-
freedom of association and
union membership; freedom to represent a union or association.
-
free access to the entire
territory of the Member State concerned.
In certain cases, Member States
may restrict equal treatment with nationals with respect to access to
employment and to education (e.g. by requiring proof of appropriate
language proficiency). In the field of social assistance and social
protection, Member States may limit equal treatment to core benefits. They
are nevertheless free to add to the list of areas in which they grant
equal treatment with nationals or the list of benefits they provide for
their nationals.
Long-term residents enjoy
enhanced protection against expulsion. The conduct on which expulsion
decisions are based must constitute an actual and sufficiently serious
threat to public order or domestic security that affects a fundamental
interest of society. Such decisions may not be founded on economic
considerations. The Member States undertake to consider specific factors
before taking a decision to expel a long-term resident (age of the person
concerned, duration of residence, etc.).
The provisions of the Directive
do not prevent Member States from issuing permanent residence permits on
terms that are more favourable than those set out in the Directive.
Nevertheless, such residence permits do not confer the right of residence
in the other Member States.
Right of residence in the
other Member States
A long-term resident may
exercise the right of residence, for a period exceeding three months, in a
Member State other than the one which granted him the status, subject to
compliance with certain conditions laid down in this proposal, including:
However, a Member State may
limit the number of residence permits if, at the time of the adoption of
this Directive, limitations for the admission of third-country nationals
are already set out in existing national law. At the same time, for
reasons of labour market policy, Member States may give preference to
Union citizens.
The above conditions do not
concern employees posted for the purpose of cross-border provision of
services nor providers of cross-border services.
When the application for a
residence permit is lodged, the competent authorities in the second Member
State may require the presentation of certain documents (such as the
long-term residence permit, an identity document, an employment contract,
documentation with regard to appropriate accommodation, etc.) and evidence
of stable and regular resources and medical insurance.
The family members of the
long-term resident may accompany him to the second Member State or join
him there on condition that they already formed a family in the first
Member State. If this is not the case, Directive 2003/86/EC on the right
to family reunification applies.
The second Member State may
refuse applications for residence only where there is an actual threat to
public policy, public security or public health. In the case of public
health, the Directive allows Member States to require a medical
examination in order to certify that the persons in question do not suffer
from any diseases that are the subject of protective provisions in the
host country. It also provides for a series of procedural guarantees such
as the statutory period for examining applications for residence permits,
the arrangements for notifying interested parties, redress procedures and
the conditions governing expulsion.
As soon as they enter the
second Member State, long-term residents will enjoy all the benefits which
they enjoyed in the first Member State under the same conditions as
nationals.
Long-term residents living in
the second Member State will retain their status in the first Member State
until they have acquired the same status in the second Member State. If
they so wish, they may, after being legally resident in the second Member
State for five years, apply to be considered as long-term residents in
that Member State.
As a general rule, the first
Member State will be obliged to readmit, together with their family
members, long-term residents whose residence permits have been withdrawn
by the second Member State.
Final
provisions
The Member States must take the
necessary measures to implement this Directive by 23 January 2006 at the
latest. No more than five years after that date, the Commission will
report to the European Parliament and Council on implementation, proposing
such amendments as may be necessary.
This Directive will enter into
force on the day of its publication in the Official Journal.
Historical background
At the Tampere European Council
(15-16 October 1999), the Member States emphasised the need to give
equitable treatment to third-country nationals legally resident in the
European Union. In particular, all third-country nationals who have been
resident in a Member State for a given period of time should be granted a
set of uniform rights which are as near as possible to those enjoyed by EU
citizens (point 21 of the Tampere conclusions). The Directive is also
designed to give full effect to Article 63(4) of the EC Treaty by setting
out the rights of third-country nationals residing legally in a Member
State to reside in the other Member States.
[Europa,
2005]
