In a judgment (Case C-540/22) handed down on Thursday, 20 June, the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) ruled that a host Member State’s law that requires a third-country worker posted to its national territory to hold a residence permit after a period of 90 days is consistent with the freedom to provide services in the European Union.
In the Netherlands, Ukrainian workers posted from Slovakia—where they had obtained temporary residence permits—are challenging Dutch regulations that require them, after a period of 90 days, to obtain a Dutch residence permit in order to continue working in the port of Rotterdam.
Having been referred a question for a preliminary ruling, the CJEU considers that the requirement for every posted worker who is a third-country national to hold a residence permit increases legal certainty for the worker. As a result, the worker has a secure document proving the lawfulness of his or her posting and right of residence in the host Member State. The court adds that the objective derived from the need to verify that the worker in question does not represent a threat to public policy is also capable of justifying this type of restriction on the freedom to provide services.
The European court also recognises the fact that the Dutch authorities collect fees for each permit application that are higher than those collected to grant an EU citizen a certificate of residence. Nevertheless, the amount of these fees is not supposed to be excessive but must approximately correspond to the administrative cost of the process, which is a matter for the Dutch courts to decide.
See the court’s judgment: https://aeur.eu/f/crb (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)