Brussels, 19/01/2012 (Agence Europe) - By requiring third-country nationals and their family members applying for long-term resident status to pay “high and unfair charges” (7 to 27 times higher than charges on member state nationals for issuing similar papers), the Netherlands has failed in its obligation under the directive on the status of third country nationals applying for long-term residency status (2003/109/EC). Such heavy charges discourage such nationals from applying for resident status and hinder the exercise of their rights (for example, to family reunification and free movement), allowed under EU law.
That is how Advocate General Yves Bot, in his opinion of Thursday 19 January, calls on the Court to rule in Case C-508/10, upholding the European Commission decision which was at the origin of the court procedure. The Commission deemed that, although the directive does not contain specific provisions on the amount of charges demanded by member states for the issuance to third-country nationals of long-term resident permits and allows states a margin of manoeuvre in this respect, the amount of those charges should nonetheless remain “fair” so that those wishing to apply for such permits are not prevented or dissuaded from doing so. Disproportionate charges, the Commission states, would be detrimental to the objective of the directive, which is to ensure that third-country nationals enjoy rights that are as close as possible to those enjoyed by citizens of the European Union. Similarly, charges must be “comparable” to those that EU citizens exercising their right to free movement have to pay for acquiring similar documents. In his conclusions, the advocate general takes up the essence of that argument.
In his view, the margin of manoeuvre available to the member states for defining the amount of charges must not be used in a way that is detrimental to the objective of the directive which is, on one hand, the gradual integration into the host member state of third-country nationals who are legally settled there, a key element for promoting economic and social cohesion, the Community's fundamental objective, and, on the other hand, free movement within the EU of such nationals. The Dutch charges are, in this respect, not only excessive but also disproportionate as, in an earlier ruling for a similar case (C-92/07), the Court had already considered similar charges disproportionate. Such charges had fallen within a range of charges, the lowest of which was more than two-thirds higher than duties to be paid by EU citizens for similar documents. Charges are therefore all the more unfair when they are 7 to 27 times higher. (FG/transl.jl)