Judgment of the Court of Justice in Case C-469/13
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In establishing a uniform status for long-term residents who are third-country nationals (that is, they are nationals of a country outside the EU), EU law1 aims to harmonise the laws of the Member States. Member States are to grant long-term resident status to third-country nationals who have resided legally and continuously within their territory for five years prior to the submission of the application.
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The Italian court therefore asks whether family members of a long-term resident may be exempted from the condition requiring five years' legal and continuous residence in the Member State concerned.
In today's judgment, the Court recalls first of all that, according to the wording of the directive itself, the Member States are to reserve the grant of long-term resident status to third-country nationals who have resided legally and continuously on their territory for five years prior to the submission of the application and that that status is conditional upon evidence that persons making such applications have sufficient resources and sickness insurance.
However, there is nothing in the wording of the directive to suggest that family members of a long-term resident may, in order to receive the long-term resident status provided for under that directive, be exempted from the condition requiring five years' legal and continuous residence. The Court has already had occasion to state that the main objective of the directive is the integration of third-country nationals who are long-term residents in a Member State and that it is the five-year duration of the legal and continuous residence that shows that the person concerned has put down roots in that State. Consequently, it declares that, in order to be able to acquire the long-term resident status provided for under EU law, third-country nationals must be personally legally and continuously resident in the host Member State for five years before submitting their application. In addition, the Court recalls that harmonisation of the terms for acquisition of long-term resident status promotes mutual confidence between Member States. Consequently, a long-term resident's EU residence permit, in principle, grants its holder the right to reside in the territory of a Member State -- other than the one which granted him long-term residence status -- for a period exceeding three months.
The Court states that the directive also permits the Member States to issue residence permits of permanent or unlimited validity on terms more favourable than those laid down by the directive. None the less, it points out that, according to the wording of the directive itself, permits issued on more favourable terms do not constitute long-term residents' EU residence permits within the meaning of that directive and do not confer the right of residence in the other Member States.
In response to the second question referred, the Court declares that EU law does not allow a Member State to issue family members with long-term residents' EU residence permits on terms more favourable than those laid down by the directive.
TNS 30FurigayJane-140718-4800817 30FurigayJane
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