Luxemburg, 31/01/2006 (Agence Europe) - The European Court of Justice has just found against Spanish authorities who refused two Algerian nationals, Mr Farid and Mr Bouchair, who are married to Spanish women and living in London and Dublin respectively, entry into Spain, because they had been place, by Germany, on the SIS (computerised Schengen Information System) list of persons to be refused entry (the first had been fined by a German court for driving without a licence, the other had been sentenced to five months in prison in Germany, too, for seeking asylum under a false identity: editor's note). The Court found that before refusing them entry, Spain should have verified whether the presence of the two Algerians constituted a genuine, present and sufficiently serious threat affecting one of the fundamental interests of society. As soon as this ruling was made, the Court published a press release indicating that, for the first time, it had established the relationship between the convention implementing the Schengen agreement (CISA) and freedom of movement for persons. Entry to, or the delivery of a visa to enter, the Schengen Area, in principle, cannot be granted to an alien for whom an alert has been issued for the purposes of refusing him entry, says the Court. It goes on, “a national of a third country who is the spouse of a Member State national risks being deprived of the protection provided for by the 1964 directive where an alert has been issued for the purposes of refusing him entry”. It concludes that a Member State may issue only an alert for the purposes of refusing an alien entry after establishing that his presence constitutes a genuine, present and sufficiently serious threat affecting the fundamental interests of society, and that a Member State which consults the SIS must be able to establish, before refusing entry into the Schengen Area to the person concerned, that his presence in that area constitutes such a threat.
Member States will have to take note of the European legislation on freedom of movement, Martin Selmayr, a Commission spokesman, told reporters on Tuesday, noting that “we cannot prevent a Russian or Algerian spouse from entering the EU simply because he went through a red light”.