Member State representatives adopted, on Thursday 23 November, their negotiating mandate for the directive on third-country nationals who are long-term residents in the EU.
While the European Parliament adopted its position last March (see EUROPE 13151/7), the Member States took longer to agree on the cumulation of legal residence in several Member States to obtain this long-term resident status.
They also maintained at five years the required threshold of years of residence in several Member States, then in a single Member State, to obtain this status when the European Parliament set this period at three years, including residence in several Member States.
In its draft mandate of 23 November, the Presidency explains the latest additions to the text, agreed by the working group on 21 November.
In particular, they concern the way in which Member States will be able to exchange information on legal residence in other Member States quickly and reliably. Some member countries are not part of Schengen, for example, and there is not necessarily an automatic system for sharing this information.
It was thus agreed that the EU Council will be able to adopt implementing acts so that Member States can verify the different periods of residence and have a tool for exchanging information with other Member States for this purpose, guaranteeing uniform conditions throughout the EU for this exchange of information.
More specifically, the Commission will be empowered to adopt an implementing act laying down the verification procedure and the practical structure for the aggregation of periods of residence on the basis of an appropriate automated information system.
However, the implementing decision setting the starting date for the automatic sharing of data on periods of legal residence would only be taken by the EU Council after the Commission had published a report on the way in which the Member States guarantee access to residence status and on the measures they take to assess potential threats to public order or public security when examining applications for permits, according to the Presidency.
As far as the rules on accumulation of periods taken into account are concerned, the mandate provides in any case that, in order to meet the necessary requirement of five years of legal and continuous residence [...] to obtain EU long-term resident status, Member States shall allow third-country nationals to accumulate periods of residence in other Member States as follows: “up to two years of legal and continuous residence in other Member States as: - holder of an EU Blue Card, holder of a residence permit other than an EU Blue Card, issued for the purposes of highly qualified employment; - researcher on the basis of the authorisation granted in accordance with Directive 2016/801/EU; - [holder of] an intra-corporate transferee permit; - [holder of] a residence permit as a family member in one of these categories or as a family member of an EU long-term resident”.
And at least three […] years of legal and continuous residence immediately prior to the submission of the application, within the territory of the Member State where the application for EU long-term resident status is submitted.
Regarding persons to whom international protection has been granted, the period between the date of the lodging of the application for international protection on the basis of which that international protection was granted and the date of the granting of the residence permit is also taken into account in calculating the period in question.
Once the period of legal and uninterrupted residence provided for by this directive has been completed in accordance with it, beneficiaries of international protection will have access to long-term resident status in the EU without having to wait for the expiry of the residence permit granted to them on the basis of international protection.
The EU Council also specifies that only temporary residence should not be taken into account when calculating the period required to obtain long-term resident status in the EU. This refers to any legal stay that does not reflect an intention to settle permanently on the territory of the Member States. Periods of job-seeking should be considered temporary and should therefore not be taken into account when accumulating the five-year period of residence required to acquire EU long-term resident status.
In the case of intra-corporate transferees under Directive 2014/665, these third-country nationals often reside in the EU on a temporary basis. However, in order to attract these skills and talents to the EU, periods of residence as an intra-corporate transferee should be taken into account when calculating the period required to obtain EU long-term resident status, provided that the overall residence has been legal and continuous.
Researchers covered by Directive 2016/8016, who are already included in the scope of this directive and can therefore apply for EU long-term resident status, are another category of qualified and talented third-country nationals that the EU should continue to attract and retain. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)