Brussels, 24/03/2003 (Agence Europe) - The European Parliament's Committee on Civil Liberties has spoken in support of much more generous family regroupment rights than in the a minima political agreement between Member States reached on 27 February. The report by Spanish socialist Carmen Cerdeira Mortero will be submitted to a plenary vote in April or May. The opinion of the MEPs on this matter will not be indicative for the Member States, whose sole obligation is to wait for the opinion to be given in order to be able to adopt the text formally.
Whereas the Council has limited the right of foreigners to bring their families to spouse and minor children only, the Committee on Civil Liberties believes that this right should be extended to unmarried partners, or those in a registered partnership, independent of gender, in a host Member State which treats such partnerships the same as married couples. They also support authorisation for major children to join their families if they are under their parents' care for health reasons. In the same way, the Committee is opposed to allowing a Member State to refuse family regroupment for a child over the age of twelve arriving separately from the parents, and presenting no "guarantees of integration".
Commissioner Vitorino, presenting the results of the last Justice and Home Affairs Council to the Committee, reiterated that the "a minima" agreement reached at Council "was not made to demonstrate the added value of European standards on legal immigration matters". However, as he did on the Council sidelines, he assured his audience that with the test, the Fifteen were recognising the existence of EU competency on this question (EUROPE of 28 February, p.8, and 1 March, p.10).