Talks about right to free movement go nowhere

Date: 20/02/1997

By Mark Turner

MONTHS of negotiations on plans to give 10 million non-EU citizens the same rights to move freely around the Union as member state nationals have ended in failure because of a dispute which goes to the very heart of the current talks on EU reform.

Union ambassadors have been unable to agree on whether the planned new cross-border travel rules should be brought forward as proposals for Community law or be decided on an intergovernmental basis, giving the European Commission, Parliament and Court of Justice little say in the process.

Diplomats say that the debate has now been put on ice until Intergovernmental Conference negotiators decide whether to change the existing Maastricht Treaty provisions on the formulation of EU-wide asylum and immigration policies.

The Council of Ministers' legal service and most member states believe that, within existing treaty rules, the issue of movement between EU countries comes clearly under the Union's justice and home affairs arm, where the Commission and MEPs currently have little competence.

However, with the exception of the UK, all other member states have expressed a willingness at least to consider giving the two institutions a greater role in establishing rules on travel into and within the EU in the revised Maastricht Treaty.

But Commission lawyers and Belgium are adamant that since free movement within the Union is already a 'fundamental' right, and is not strictly an immigration issue, it can be dealt with by Community structures without any change in the treaty. Their position was strongly supported by the European Parliament in a recent vote.

Discussions under both the Irish presidency in the second half of 1996 and the Dutch, who took the helm at the start of this year, have failed to make any progress on this issue, resulting in the decision to abandon talks.

The original proposal drawn up by Internal Market Commissioner Mario Monti would have given third-country citizens with valid long-term EU residence permits the same freedom to move across Union borders as EU nationals.

Two other proposed directives would end internal border controls throughout the Union and restrictions on the movement of non-EU workers and their families between member states.

The three 'Monti directives' - which were put on the table in 1995 after the Parliament accused the Commission of failing to fulfil its duty to turn the promise of a border-free Europe into a reality - are seen by both institutions as crucial to closing the remaining loopholes in the single market.

“As long as citizens do not have free movement, the internal market will not be complete,” said Monti's spokeswoman.

But EU governments last year questioned the basis of the proposal, arguing that as an immigration issue it should be dealt with under the intergovernmental 'third pillar' of the Maastricht Treaty.

The debate over the rights of legal immigrants is closely tied to that on the right of EU nationals to travel freely within the Union.

The British government has long insisted on its power to retain checks on travellers arriving in the UK and has vowed to veto any attempt to bring it into line with those member states which have signed up to the Schengen free-movement zone.

Seven countries already apply the terms of the Schengen Convention. Three more (Italy, Austria and Greece) hope to do so by the end of this year and five others (including non-EU Iceland and Norway) are set to join soon, leaving only the UK and Ireland out in the cold.

The UK's firm opposition to any attempt to turn the terms of the Schengen accord into Union law resulted last week in suggestions from the Dutch that the principle of flexibility - seen as a way out of this and other similar impasses - could be applied, allowing the UK to maintain its border checks.