Family Reunification Rights in EU Free Movement Law: A Scattered Legal Field

Abstract

“The right to family reunification has been an essential component of EU free movement law since the right of workers to move and take up residence in a host Member State of employment was first introduced in the early days of the European Economic Community (EEC). With time, as freedom of movement developed towards being a Union citizenship-based freedom, family reunification rights became an equivalent core feature for the general right to non-economically motivated free movement granted to Union citizens. This legal development was in turn codified by the Free Movement Directive 2004/38 (the FMD), adopted in 2004.

The purpose of this research seminar is to highlight three features of the last two decades of legal development of family reunification rights in EU free movement law. The presentation will point to both the legal empowerment and particularities of family reunification rights in the FMD, as well as the ways in which this legal field remains oddly scattered as the integral protection of the family life of mobile Union citizens depends also on other legal instruments, outside the scope of the FMD. Lastly, some conclusions and suggestions for the future legal development of this field will be presented.”