Luxembourg, 12/04/2011 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 11 April in Luxembourg, the Council of Ministers of the European Union adopted, without debate, the new rules allowing refugees and the beneficiaries of international protection in the EU to benefit from the same residency conditions as other third country nationals living on European soil for the past five years or more. A press release explained that by amending directive 2003/109 (the United Kingdom, Denmark and Ireland are not participants in this initiative), the Council has approved these new rights for those benefiting from international protection: - the right to move freely within another member state; - the right to become a resident in another member state; - the right, subject to certain conditions, of benefiting from the same advantages as European citizens, particularly with regard to education, access to the labour market and welfare benefits. The text also includes specific modalities for calculating the five-year period required for obtaining long-term residency status. This directive is part of the European Commission's “asylum package”, which aims to develop a common asylum system by 2012 and which also contains a raft of legislative proposals, such as a review of the Dublin system, Eurodac and other reception directives and asylum procedures. (S.P./transl.fl)