Common European Asylum System in a Changing World

Conditions The Directive introduced a wide range of discretion for its implementation. The Member States may impose some conditions before allowing family reunification, they may require the sponsor (i.e. the already legally residing foreigner) to have: • adequate accommodation, • sufficient resources and health insurance, and • impose a waiting period of no more than two years. Family reunification can be refused for spouses who have not reached a required age – which can be 21 years at the highest. Polygamy is not recognised, which means that only one spouse at a time can benefit from the right to family reunification. Member States may ask third-country nationals to comply with integration measures before or after arrival. Finally, threat to public order, public security, or public health can lead to rejecting the application. In order to prevent abuse, consequences in the event of fraud as well as marriage, partnership, or adoption of convenience are also foreseen. In April 2014, the Commission adopted a Communication on guidance for application of Directive 2003/86/EC on the right to family reunification. 1 It advises Member States in their implementation of the Directive in order to achieve a more consistent policy and practice across the EU. 7.4 EU and Migrant Integration The area of freedom, security, and justice is one of the most dynamic fields of EU law. Whereas the links between migration, asylum, and external border controls have been quite clearly defined in Articles 77–79 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), the interrelation and interdependence between migration and asylum on the one hand and migrant integration on the other has been widely neglected. Only one single provision of the founding Treaties carefully touches upon the integration of third- country nationals. According to Article 79 paragraph 4 TFEU, which has been introduced only by the Treaty of Lisbon, the EU may establish measures to provide incentives and support for the action of Member States in the field of migrant integration. However, any harmonization of national law in this field is explicitly excluded. Therefore, some conceptual and practical questions related to EU involvement in the integration agenda are unclear. Migrant integration as a legal concept It is certainly not easy to define a concise concept of migrant integration for the purpose of national law. In its short synthesis report of 2003, the Commission found that quite different concepts and approaches existed on the national level (COM(2003)336

1 Communication from the Commission on guidance for application of Directive 2003/86/EC on the right to family reunification, COM/2014/0210 final

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