The Immigration (European Economic Area) Regulations 2006 (or ''EEA Regulations'' for short), amended by SI 2009/1117, SI 2011/1247 and SI 2015/694 and which have now been mostly repealed and superseded by the

Immigration (European Economic Area) Regulations 2016 The Immigration (European Economic Area) Regulations 2016, or EEA Regulations 2016 for short, constituted the law that implemented the right of free movement of European Economic Area (EEA) nationals and their family members in the United Kingdom ...

, was a piece of British legislation which implemented the right of free movement of

European Economic Area The European Economic Area (EEA) was established via the ''Agreement on the European Economic Area'', an international agreement which enables the extension of the European Union's single market to member states of the European Free Trade Asso ...

(EEA) nationals and their family members in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. It is based on

Directive 2004/38/EC The Citizens' Rights Directive 2004/38/EC (also sometimes called the "Free Movement Directive") sets out the conditions for the exercise of the right of free movement for citizens of countries in the European Economic Area (EEA), which includes ...

. It allows EEA citizens and their family members to live and work in the UK without explicit permission. Although Swiss citizens are covered by a separate

bilateral agreement Bilateralism is the conduct of political, economic, or cultural relations between two sovereign states. It is in contrast to unilateralism or multilateralism, which is activity by a single state or jointly by multiple states, respectively. When ...

; they are treated basically the same as EEA nationals. Family members may need a special entry clearance (the

EEA family permit A European Economic Area Family Permit (short: EEA family permit) was an immigration document that assisted the holder to enter the United Kingdom as a family member of a citizen of a contracting state to the European Economic Area agreement or ...

) to enter the UK.

Legal context

The basis of the Immigration EEA Regulations 2006 is Directive 2004/38/EC. Member states are bound by the EC treaties to implement Directives into national law. However, a significant amount of case law (or precedents), many of them predating the directive, and the historical development (see

Freedom of movement for workers The freedom of movement for workers is a policy chapter of the acquis communautaire of the European Union. The free movement of workers means that nationals of any member state of the European Union can take up an employment in another member st ...

) must also be taken into account to correctly interpret EU law. Still, ambiguities in the Directive and misinterpretation by the member states exist, which may require further clarification through national courts and the

European Court of Justice The European Court of Justice (ECJ), officially the Court of Justice (), is the supreme court of the European Union in matters of European Union law. As a part of the Court of Justice of the European Union, it is tasked with interpreting ...

Terminology and applications

The EEA Regulations define a number of terms in addition to the terms in the Directive 2004/38.

Core and extended family members

The definition of a Core family member (of an EEA national) only includes a spouse or civil partner, children under 21, or dependant children of any age and dependent parents. A person outside of this definition (especially unmarried partners) may fall under the category of an extended family member. These include dependents of the EU citizens, members of the household, and a partner in a "durable relationship". While the Directive 2004/38 requires member states to "facilitate entry" for extended family members, the details are not defined. The Directive does not seem to grant any rights to extended family members. In the EEA Regulations, the acceptance of extended family members is not explicit. UK regulations have specific criteria for extended family members, including unmarried and same sex partners. Once an extended family member has been issued with an EEA family permit, Residence Card, or Residence Certificate, they are regarded under UK regulations as family members.

Accession states

Workers from recent member states have the right to move to the UK, but their access to the labour market is limited. The details are defined in the

Worker Registration Scheme The Accession State Worker Registration Scheme was a temporary measure used in the period from 2004 to 2011 by the UK to restrict incoming workers from the eight member states of the European Union in Central Europe and the Baltic region of north ...

(WRS). Nationals of

A8 countries The largest enlargement of the European Union (EU), in terms of number of states and population, took place on 1 May 2004. The simultaneous accessions concerned the following countries (sometimes referred to as the "A10" countries): Cyprus, ...

will cease to be subject to the Worker Registration scheme and may benefit from free movement under the directive once 12 months of employment with a single employer has been completed. The transitional WRS scheme became obsolete in 2011 when A8 national workers will have the same rights as all other EEA nationals.

Completeness

The implementation is reasonably complete, although there are areas where the Directive has not been fully implemented. One example is a failure to correctly implement the Surinder Singh ruling of the European Court of Justice. Another issue with the UK implementation of the Directive is that the UK has kept national immigration law (the "Immigration Rules") separate from the implementation of the European law (the "EEA Regulations"). While it is possible to switch from the UK law to the European law, this does reset the clock for acquiring permanent residence. The legal situation of extended family members during this switch is uncertain, because they have to conform to both laws. Switching from European law to UK law is possible only after the EEA citizen became settled in the UK. The EEA national is considered settled when having attained permanent residence.

References

External links

Immigration (European Economic Area) Regulations 2006
– UK Government
Immigration (European Economic Area) Regulations Latest Consolidated Version
– EEARegulations.co.uk

of an EEA Registration Certificate (pre 2011), the Residence Card looks the same but with different text. * http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2006/1003/contents/made {{DEFAULTSORT:Eea Regulations (Uk) European Union law Schengen, Luxembourg Law enforcement in Europe Boundary treaties Borders of the United Kingdom International transport Immigration law in the United Kingdom Statutory instruments of the United Kingdom 2006 in British law Immigration to the European Union European Economic Area Visa policy of the United Kingdom