Compliance of French Law No 2011-672 of 16 June 2011 on Immigration, Integration and Nationality with EU legislation

14.9.2011

Question for written answer E-008463/2011
to the Commission
Rule 117
Hélène Flautre (Verts/ALE) , Sylvie Guillaume (S&D) , Nathalie Griesbeck (ALDE) and Marie-Christine Vergiat (GUE/NGL)

On 16 June 2011, France published Law No 2011-672 on Immigration, Integration and Nationality, a piece of legislation which aims to transpose, inter alia, Directive 2008/115/EC on common standards and procedures in Member States for returning illegally staying third-country nationals.

As regards EU citizens' right of residence, is France acting in compliance with Directive 2004/38/EC when it states that citizens of the Union who enter France on repeated occasions do so in order to stay in the country without having to fulfil the conditions required for periods longer than three months? Is France within its rights when it states that such citizens are ‘abusing’ their right to free movement (Article 39(2) of the aforementioned law or Article L. 511-3-1(2) of the Code on Entry and Stay of Foreigners and Right to Asylum, known as Ceseda)? In using the notion of an ‘unreasonable burden on the social assistance system’ as a motive for restricting an EU citizen's freedom of movement to stays shorter than three months (Article 22 of Law No 2011-672/Article L. 121-4-1 of Ceseda), is France acting in line with Article 14 of Directive 2004/38/EC?

Under Article 37 of Law No 2011-672 (or Article L. 511-1 of CESEDA), those subject to a ban on re-entry are automatically entered into the Schengen Information System (SIS) database. Is this mandatory given the provisions of Directive 2008/115/EC, particularly the restrictions laid down in Article 11(3)? Is it not contrary to Article 21 of Regulation (EC) No 1987/2006, especially the principle of proportionality therein, which repeats some of the clauses of the 19 June 1990 Convention implementing the Schengen Agreement, more precisely Article 96?

Regarding the creation of designated detention zones, Article 10(2) of Law No 2011-672 (and Article L. 221-2 of Ceseda) refers to the simultaneous arrival of at least 10 people either as a group or scattered and separated from one another by distances of 10 kilometres (that is an area covering 3 141 km²). Does the arrival of 10 people qualify as an ‘emergency situation’, as defined by Directive 2008/115/EC?

OJ C 154 E, 31/05/2012