Third-country nationals legally residing in the Schengen area on the basis of a long-stay visa have been unable to travel to other member states during their stay or to transit through the territories of other (EU) member states when returning to their home country.
A new EU Regulation now extends the principle of equivalence between residence permits and short-stay visas issued by the Member States, fully implementing the Schengen acquis to long-stay visas. As a result, a long-stay visa should have the same effects as a residence permit as regards the freedom of movement of the holder in the Schengen Area.
A third-country national holding a long-stay visa issued by a Member State should therefore be allowed to travel to other Member States for three months in any six- month period, under the same conditions as the holder of a residence permit. The Regulation does not affect the rules regarding the conditions for issuing long-stay visas:
Regulation (EU) No 265/2010 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 March 2010 amending the Convention Implementing the Schengen Agreement and Regulation (EC) No 562/2006 as regards movement of persons with a long-stay visa; published OJEU 31.3.2010 L 85/1.
The directly applicable Regulation 265/2010 entered into force on 5 April 2010.
The United Kingdom and Ireland do not take part in the new arrangement.
Ralf Grahn
Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts
Saturday, 10 April 2010
Thursday, 4 February 2010
Freedom to travel for Schengen migrants on long-stay visas
The current situation has led to thousands of complaints, says the European Parliament rapporteur Carlos Coelho.
The Grahnlaw blog post Schengen residents with long-stay visa: Proposals on freedom to travel (3 February 2010) mentioned the travel restrictions on legally residing migrants with a national long-stay visa. We also mentioned the Regulations proposed by the European Commission in COM(2009) 90 final and COM(2009) 91 final to enable these expats with “D visas” to travel inside the Schengen area.
The proposals have now advanced in the European Parliament to the stage where the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) is set to adopt its report today, based on the draft prepared by Carlos Coelho (rapporteur):
Draft report PE430.461 on the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending the Convention Implementing the Schengen Agreement and Regulation (EC) No 562/2006 as regards movement of persons with a long-stay visa (COM(2009)0091 – C6 0076/2009 – 2009/0028(COD))
The other draft report is PE430.459 on the proposal for a Council regulation amending the Convention Implementing the Schengen Agreement as regards long stay visa and alerts in the Schengen Information System (COM(2009)0090 – C6 0107/2009 – 2009/0025(CNS)).
Here the procedure will probably change from consultation to the ordinary legislative procedure, due to the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty.
Concerning both proposals the rapporteur noted the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty, as well as the “omnibus Communication” being prepared with regard to the new legal bases. He also expressed uncertainty whether the national Parliaments have yet to be consulted and granted an 8 weeks period to react on the files which are pending at the moment when the Treaty of Lisbon comes into force.
We may be somewhat wiser with regard to the possible amendments and the procedures after the LIBE meeting today.
Anyway, improvements seem to be on their way for legal migrants on long-stay visas.
Ralf Grahn
P.S. Cross-border communication about European issues is important for our future, and Euroblogs offer an enjoyable way to improve our language skills.
Eva Peña in Barcelona writes expertly and critically about the challenges of the European Union and the EU politics of Spain on Eva en Europa (in Spanish).
Perhaps inspired by the Spanish presidency of the Council of the European Union, bloggers in Spain can now be found on a new aggregator Europeando.eu, with posts in Spanish, Catalan and Galician.
Eva en Europa is listed among 522 great Euroblogs (at the latest count) on growing multilingual Bloggingportal.eu, your useful one-stop-shop for fact, opinion and gossip on European affairs: politics, more than thirty policy areas, communication, economics, finance, business, civil society and law.
If you are interested in the EU or the euroblogosphere, you can also subscribe to the RSS feed for new blog posts appearing on Bloggingportal.eu.
By the way, I also discuss European issues in Finnish on Eurooppaoikeus and in Swedish on Grahnblawg.
The Grahnlaw blog post Schengen residents with long-stay visa: Proposals on freedom to travel (3 February 2010) mentioned the travel restrictions on legally residing migrants with a national long-stay visa. We also mentioned the Regulations proposed by the European Commission in COM(2009) 90 final and COM(2009) 91 final to enable these expats with “D visas” to travel inside the Schengen area.
The proposals have now advanced in the European Parliament to the stage where the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) is set to adopt its report today, based on the draft prepared by Carlos Coelho (rapporteur):
Draft report PE430.461 on the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending the Convention Implementing the Schengen Agreement and Regulation (EC) No 562/2006 as regards movement of persons with a long-stay visa (COM(2009)0091 – C6 0076/2009 – 2009/0028(COD))
The other draft report is PE430.459 on the proposal for a Council regulation amending the Convention Implementing the Schengen Agreement as regards long stay visa and alerts in the Schengen Information System (COM(2009)0090 – C6 0107/2009 – 2009/0025(CNS)).
Here the procedure will probably change from consultation to the ordinary legislative procedure, due to the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty.
Concerning both proposals the rapporteur noted the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty, as well as the “omnibus Communication” being prepared with regard to the new legal bases. He also expressed uncertainty whether the national Parliaments have yet to be consulted and granted an 8 weeks period to react on the files which are pending at the moment when the Treaty of Lisbon comes into force.
We may be somewhat wiser with regard to the possible amendments and the procedures after the LIBE meeting today.
Anyway, improvements seem to be on their way for legal migrants on long-stay visas.
Ralf Grahn
P.S. Cross-border communication about European issues is important for our future, and Euroblogs offer an enjoyable way to improve our language skills.
Eva Peña in Barcelona writes expertly and critically about the challenges of the European Union and the EU politics of Spain on Eva en Europa (in Spanish).
Perhaps inspired by the Spanish presidency of the Council of the European Union, bloggers in Spain can now be found on a new aggregator Europeando.eu, with posts in Spanish, Catalan and Galician.
Eva en Europa is listed among 522 great Euroblogs (at the latest count) on growing multilingual Bloggingportal.eu, your useful one-stop-shop for fact, opinion and gossip on European affairs: politics, more than thirty policy areas, communication, economics, finance, business, civil society and law.
If you are interested in the EU or the euroblogosphere, you can also subscribe to the RSS feed for new blog posts appearing on Bloggingportal.eu.
By the way, I also discuss European issues in Finnish on Eurooppaoikeus and in Swedish on Grahnblawg.
Saturday, 4 July 2009
Vacation or business: Travelling in Europe 2009
Whether you are heading for your vacation destination or travelling for business purposes, the 11 page brochure Travelling in Europe 2009 is worth a glance. Available at the EU Bookshop.
Travelling in Europe 2009 offers brief information about needed documents (Schengen), money (the euro), approximate exchange rates, cash withdrawals, bank transfers, shopping (tobacco and alcohol), consumer protection, driving licence, car insurance, driving safety, air passenger rights, airport security, rail transport, access to healthcare and the European health insurance card, travel insurance, medicines, immunisation, bathing water, languages, country codes, mobile phones (roaming), postage stamps, electricity, tourist information, weather, time zones (summer time), pets, emergency number 112, national tourist information sites, EU information and basic statistics.
The brochure serves both EU citizens and visitors from third countries.
Indirectly, Travelling in Europe 2009 gives a number of answers to the question: What has Europe ever done for me?
Ralf Grahn
Travelling in Europe 2009 offers brief information about needed documents (Schengen), money (the euro), approximate exchange rates, cash withdrawals, bank transfers, shopping (tobacco and alcohol), consumer protection, driving licence, car insurance, driving safety, air passenger rights, airport security, rail transport, access to healthcare and the European health insurance card, travel insurance, medicines, immunisation, bathing water, languages, country codes, mobile phones (roaming), postage stamps, electricity, tourist information, weather, time zones (summer time), pets, emergency number 112, national tourist information sites, EU information and basic statistics.
The brochure serves both EU citizens and visitors from third countries.
Indirectly, Travelling in Europe 2009 gives a number of answers to the question: What has Europe ever done for me?
Ralf Grahn
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