Directive 2004/38/EC On The Right To Move and Reside Freely - Implementation

Implementation

As a Directive, this text is not directly applicable, but it has to be transposed into the national legislation. It defines a basic right, while the member states can determine in which way this right is granted. The deadline for implementation was the 2006-04-30, although a number of member states have missed this deadline by a few months. The following presents an (incomplete) overview of the implementation. An implementation report by the European commission was published in December 2008 which concluded that "Although national laws in some areas treat EU citizens and their families better than EU law requires, not one single Member State has transposed the Directive effectively and correctly in its entirety. Not one Article of the Directive has been transposed effectively and correctly by all Member States. The overall transposition of the Directive is rather disappointing." As announced in this report the European commission released guidance on how to better transpose and apply the Directive in July 2009.