“We appeal to the European Parliament to ask for the annulment, before the Court of Justice of the European Communities, of the directive relating to the family reunification of foreigners, recently adopted by the EU Council and published in the Official Gazette”. The appeal is made by various NGOs, including the European Coordination and Caritas Europe. The directive in question throws into doubt the right of family reunification and, according to the European Coordination, “violates a number of fundamental rights guaranteed in particular by the European Convention on human rights and by the international Convention on children’s rights”. The appeal arises from the need, expressed by the EP itself last April, to amend the provisions more unfavourable to foreigners included in the text of the EU Council. The first version of this directive, dating to December 1999, had been approved by the majority of NGOs, as well as by the EP itself, since “it guaranteed respect for the rights of foreigners to live as a family”. According to the Coordination, however, the current draft “risks seriously destabilizing the families that have immigrated into the Union and compromising the Tampere objectives”. Tampere is the city where the European Council held an extraordinary meeting in 1999 on the creation of a space of freedom, security and justice within the EU. ———————————————————————————————————– Sir Europa (English) N.ro assoluto : 1238 N.ro relativo : 68 Data pubblicazione : 11/10/2003
