The Court of Justice lays the foundations for the Long-Term Residents Directive: Kamberaj, Commission v. Netherlands, Mangat Singh

Publishers Abstract:
During 2012, the Court of Justice delivered its first three judgments interpreting the Long-term Residents Directive (the LTR Directive), a key measure in the area of EU immigration policy, which some have suggested creates a "subsidiary form of EU citizenship" for third-country nationals. While the LTR Directive raises a number of questions of interpretation, the three 2012 judgments raised more specifically the questions of equal treatment as regards housing benefits, the level of fees charged for applications for residence permits for long-term residents and their family members and the scope of the Directive.

These initial three judgments on the LTR Directive have clearly laid out the direction for the Court's future interpretation of this legislation. Substantively, the Court has referred repeatedly to the Directive's stated objective of integration of third-country nationals, but also to the objective of equal treatment and even the development of the internal market and free movement of persons.