Brussels, 03/04/2006 (Agence Europe) - The European Commissioner for Justice and Home Affairs Franco Frattini was keen to bring some clarification on the respective rights of citizens in new Member States of the EU and third countries and those of long term residents. This comes after fears sometimes expressed by workers in countries of Eastern and Central Europe that they are in a less favourable position than long term residents from third countries in the EU.
Mr Frattini explained in a press release that the 2003/109/EC directive of 25 November 2003 on the status of long term residents, in application since 23 January 2006 and which puts into practice the appeal launched by the European Council of Tampere to make the status of third country citizens having lived legally in the EU for a long period included, “a series of uniform rights, as close as possible to those enjoyed by citizens of the European Union”. He also stressed that “this is one of the foundations of the legal framework covering immigration and integration of third country nationals”.
According to Mr Frattini, the Accession Treaty of new EU Member States provides a “nuanced approach and clear solutions” ensuring that there is no risk of discrimination towards new Union citizens. He explained that the accession treaty included a period in which temporary restrictions applied on employing workers from Central and Eastern Europe (which the United Kingdom, Ireland and Sweden have never done, followed by Finland, Spain and Portugal), the older Member States have to give preference to nationals from the new EU countries in preference to third country nationals when it is a case of initial access to the labour market. In the case of nationals from Central and Eastern Europe who already live and work (before accession) in an EU country applying temporary restrictions, the Treaty ensures that these people will not be treated in a way that is more restrictive than towards third country long term residents; if a third country national and long term resident in a “new” EU country looking for work in an “older EU country, the latter can give them access to the labour market only if such access is ensured for the workers of the new Member State in question.