Immigrationboards.com

I wanted to alert users to a free on-line service called Your Europe Advice:
http://ec.europa.eu/citizensrights/fron ... dex_en.htm

Your Europe Advice is a free service of the European Commission compirsing a team of independent legal experts who can:
-provide free and personalised advice in your language within a week;
-clarify the European law that applies in your case; and
-explain how you can exercise your EU rights.

Thank you very much. May I ask if you are affiliated to this service?

Yes, I am one of the advisors on Your Europe Advice.

Dear EU-lawyer:

No offense, but having used this free service myself on two seperate occassions, I have to say the quality of the advice offered is really sub-par on all counts.

Say for instance someone is writing your legal advice service wanting to know how to exercise their right to free movement as a union citizen and bring their third-country spouse with them to a member state other than that of their own and wish to apply for a free visa for said spouse to facilitate entry into the other member state?

Would you perhaps qoute directive 2004/38 assuring them the representation abroad are obliged to follow the directive and issue the thrid-country spouse with a free visa?

Let me just save you the trouble and tell you IT AIN'T HAPPENING.

What good is a free legal advice service from the EU when the member states repeatedly violate the right to free movement and the Commission then turns the blind eye afterwards?

MY FREE LEGAL ADVICE to you would be to carefully read through these threads and start to appreciate the very real beloved and indifference people here have experienced for themselves and their families when dealing with government officials working in third-country embassies:

http://www.immigrationboards.com/viewto ... highlight=

http://www.immigrationboards.com/viewto ... highlight=

http://www.immigrationboards.com/viewto ... highlight=

http://www.immigrationboards.com/viewto ... highlight=

http://www.immigrationboards.com/viewtopic.php?t=74600

Thanks,

MSH.

YEA is aware of these problems and some of our experts participated in a report for the European Parliament in which we identified the problems and recommended further action.

Regrettably, we don't have the mandate to represent people who continue to face difficulties in exercising their residence rights.

Our approach is always to identify what rights an enquirer has and then to encourage that person to raise the matter again with the Home Office. This has been successful in many cases.

If that does not work, we can refer them to other organisations which can take further action including court proceedings.

For the UK, these include:

-SOLVIT, the EU's network of government officials, who can try to achieve a compromise.

-the AIRE centre which can take up cases free of charge for persons on a limited income;

-ECAS which has a partnership with lawyers to provide free legal representation for persons on a limited income.

Enquirers also have the possibility of raising the issue with their MP or MEP, who are under a duty to respond. In serious cases, we also suggest that the enquirer send an official complaint to the European Commission and/or the European Parliament.

Perhaps you can tell me more about your particular situation?

Dear Eu lawyer,

I, being a non eea national of a minor eea national (polish) living in London, was wondering whether the Zambrano ruling applies to me givien tht my child isnt living in his home country.

Thx in advance

EU_lawyer wrote:YEA is aware of these problems and some of our experts participated in a report for the European Parliament in which we identified the problems and recommended further action.

Regrettably, we don't have the mandate to represent people who continue to face difficulties in exercising their residence rights.

Our approach is always to identify what rights an enquirer has and then to encourage that person to raise the matter again with the Home Office. This has been successful in many cases.

If that does not work, we can refer them to other organisations which can take further action including court proceedings.

For the UK, these include:

-SOLVIT, the EU's network of government officials, who can try to achieve a compromise.

-the AIRE centre which can take up cases free of charge for persons on a limited income;

-ECAS which has a partnership with lawyers to provide free legal representation for persons on a limited income.

Enquirers also have the possibility of raising the issue with their MP or MEP, who are under a duty to respond. In serious cases, we also suggest that the enquirer send an official complaint to the European Commission and/or the European Parliament.

Perhaps you can tell me more about your particular situation?

Yes, in principle I think it's very important work you do. The issue I have with the legal advice you guys provide is that it's inherently flawed inasmuch as it's based on the (false) premise that EU member states are going to actually ABIDE by community law.

ONLY after infringement proceedings are opened against a member state will it (usually) move to bring its practices in line with current community law.. and since this process is so slow and cumbersome the member states capitalise on it by basically ignoring the principle of 'rule of law' until they face stiff economic sanctions.

My personal situation is that I am a Danish national who had the audacity of falling in love with and marrying a national of the African country Guinea-Bissau.

We met in the Gambia were we also married. When I tried to combine a honeymoon with a business trip to the Netherlands we were refused an entry visa at the Dutch embassy in Senegal. We then tried the other EU representations there but none of them would issue my wife with a free entry visa. This is all in direct contrast to the advice I recieved from your service, btw.

When I described my situation here in this forum I soon found out that there are A LOT of EU citizens trapped in Africa because EU embassies there are in direct violation of community law on free movement as a rule rather than an exception.

I wrote a formal complaint to the Commission which they replied to 6 months later. The told me that it's a focus area for the Commission but no infringement proceedings would be opened against any of the involved member states.

Since then, I have managed to obtain a national visa for my spouse to Denmark. We have been denied family unification here and my wife have had a deportation order issued against her.

This is despite the fact that she's now 6 month pregnant with my child, despite the fact that the Court of the European Union with the Zambrano-ruling declared it unlawful for member states to expel parents of minor unions citizens and despite the fact that I have a right to family life enshrined in the ECHR article 8... a convention ALL EU member states have to ratify in order to enjoy membership of the Union.

Honestly, I am probably just jaded and sick and tired of hearing about my rights as a European when all I have encountered is dearly beloved lovely from government officials disguised as a 'firm and fair' immigration policy..

What I have decided to do about my situation is to sue my own country for breaching community law.

Basically, my argument will be that IF the Carpenter-ruling allows a provider of services free movement in other member states and thus his third-country spouse a right of residence in the service provider's own member state, and since a denial of this residence right in the service provider's own member state would lead to the service provider leaving the territory of the union, THEN the exact same holds true for a RECIPIENT of services.

The freedom to exchange services is a dual-pronged freedom for both PROVIDERS as well as RECIPIENTS. This has been firmly established in numerous cases (Luisi & Carbone, Watts, Cowan etc.).

Interestingly, I have previously written your legal advice service to ask if this is the case indeed but recieved a long-winded waffle without any substance or clear-cut answer to my question.

Perhaps you would like to critique my legal argument here?

Should the Court of the European Union agree that I am right in this I foresee a veritable deluge of compensation lawsuits against governments all over Europe who have misled their own citizens into moving to neighbouring member states for prolonged periods of time when all they really had to do was exercise their right to free movement as recipients of services in another member state as tourists, for instance.

Regards,

MSH.

EU_lawyer wrote:YEA is aware of these problems and some of our experts participated in a report for the European Parliament in which we identified the problems and recommended further action.

Regrettably, we don't have the mandate to represent people who continue to face difficulties in exercising their residence rights.

Our approach is always to identify what rights an enquirer has and then to encourage that person to raise the matter again with the Home Office. This has been successful in many cases.

If that does not work, we can refer them to other organisations which can take further action including court proceedings.

For the UK, these include:

-SOLVIT, the EU's network of government officials, who can try to achieve a compromise.

-the AIRE centre which can take up cases free of charge for persons on a limited income;

-ECAS which has a partnership with lawyers to provide free legal representation for persons on a limited income.

Enquirers also have the possibility of raising the issue with their MP or MEP, who are under a duty to respond. In serious cases, we also suggest that the enquirer send an official complaint to the European Commission and/or the European Parliament.

Perhaps you can tell me more about your particular situation?

Basically by the sounds of it, all you do is quote the relevent Euroean regulation/directive at someone, which, for the most part, they are probably already aware of by the time they have gone to the trouble of making an application only for it to be refused. I assume you get funding from the European Commission to do this. It's a shame they can't be bothered to fund someone to give more practical advice support and representation.

The organisations you have referred to do not provide representation in the way that you suggest either. the AIRE centre are more renowned for giving second tier advice (advice to solicitors who are representing individuals). According to their website the only assistance they give to individuals is written advice:

http://www.airecentre.org/pages/i-am-se ... -know.html

According to ECAS's website (which is littered with typos) they have a 'hotline' which again sounds like the same scenario of being given 'information' (i.e what we already know) , and they only provide support in cases which meet certain criteria, including "problems which cannot be solved through national channels
and require intervention from European Institutions".

I note that Your Europe Advice is a member of ECAS so of course you recommend them to people whom you cannot help. what a vicous circle this must be.

Don't even get me started with (CAN'T)SOLVIT.

I think most people need to know, in the first instance, the practicalities of making an application from the relevent member state. They need to know how the initial decision maker (i.e. the Home Office) treats applications, how they apply the law, and how their appliation of their law can be challenged in practice in the national courts.

Thanks for your information on the service and sorry to sound very pessimistic but at the very least you could be more knowledgable about who actually provides good quality legal advice and representation in the UK before posting about your service on this board.

I wanted to update readers to enhancements made in the way these various advisory services operate.

Individuals facing difficulties in exercising their EU rights should contact Your Europe Advice in the first instance. Your Europe Advice will provide advice on the law and give practical assistance on how to approach the national authorities.

Where SOLVIT may be able assist, Your Europe Advice will refer individuals to that service.

Where AIRE's assistance is more appropriate, individuals will be invited to contact them, since they now provide first-line advice to individuals. AIRE staff can write on your behalf to the Home Office.

If SOLVIT or AIRE's assistance is unsuccessful for whatever reason, the individual should again make contact with Your Europe Advice who may then refer the matter to ECAS for pro bono legal representation.

ECAS is now able to refer individuals for pro bono legal representation by a law firm.

I trust this will address some of the concerns previously expressed.