“Improving the jurisdictional protection for matters covered by Title IV through a boosting of the powers of the European Court of Justice”: that’s one of the recommendations made by the European Commission to the member states in the framework of the Report on the application of the Programme of The Hague on the space for liberty, security and justice presented to the European Parliament at the end of June. In particular, the Executive pointed out that as regards the matters covered by Title IV of the Treaty of Amsterdam (asylum, immigration, family reunification for citizens of third countries, visas, free circulation of persons and civil law) the “derogation from the normal regime” currently in force “limits the powers of the European Court of Justice more than in other fields. This means that national first instance and appeal courts cannot appeal in a preliminary way to the Court of Justice of the European Community on the interpretation of EU law on these questions”. Brussels proposes that the Council, unanimously, should rule that the full power of the Luxembourg court be extended to Title IV, from the next semester of the European Council whose Presidency will be held by Finland.
