EU Citizenship and the ECJ: Why Care about Primary Carers?

Nathan Cambien 

Katholieke Universiteit Leuven - Faculty of Law
2012

Abstract:      
In recent case law we witness the emergence of a special category of privileged family members of EU citizens, namely primary carers of young EU citizens. The ECJ has recognized that primary carers can, under certain circumstances, enjoy a right of residence in the host Member State, even if do not satisfy the traditional inter-State requirement or the requirements regarding self-sufficiency. This begs two obvious questions: 1) why do primary carers enjoy these extensive rights? and 2) who exactly can invoke these more extensive rights? These are the two fundamental questions addressed by my paper.

In the first place, the paper examine the underlying justifications for the ECJ’s holdings, focusing on effet utile and fundamental rights related arguments. I argue that the ECJ’s extensive case law should be welcomed because it enhances the status of EU citizenship and the protection of the right to respect for family life. In the second place, the paper tries to determine, on the basis of these justifications, the precise scope of the primary carer concept. In this connection, it is examined inter alia whether only family members qualify as primary carers and whether multiple primary cares may derive a right of residence from this status.

As such the paper tries to shed some light on a rather controversial line in ECJ case law, which is still in full development, and make it more insightful.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 21

Full text available at: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2167890