European Union Free Movement Directive 2004 (Disapplication)

Lord Jackson of Peterborough Excerpts

Wednesday 31st October 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Stewart Jackson (Peterborough) (Con)]

I beg to move,

That leave be given to bring in a Bill to disapply the European Union Free Movement Directive 2004/38/EC; and for connected purposes.

I am pleased to introduce the Bill, which is intended to restate a basic tenet of national sovereignty—the control of our borders, and the principle that who comes to live and work in our country from foreign countries should be a matter largely for the British people and their elected representatives in this House, and not solely at the discretion and by leave of a foreign political entity. Free movement between sovereign countries should first and foremost be dictated by our own national interests. That basic truth seems to have been lost in a rush to be as communautaire as possible since 2004, to the detriment of many of the constituents in whose name we serve.

Few would deny that it was a major error of judgment for the Labour Government not to exercise their right to a moratorium on the free movement directive for seven years, as most other EU countries did. It could be argued that it retarded efforts to tackle welfare dependency, low educational attainment and problems with skills and social mobility among many indigenous British workers.

A recent YouGov poll found that 78% of voters who had deserted Labour since 1997 wanted net migration to be reduced to zero. Even 67% of voters who had remained loyal to the party believed the same thing. There is no evidence to suggest that they regard EU migration differently from non-EU migration.

I argue that the forthcoming free movement of potentially huge numbers of Romanian and Bulgarian citizens to the UK from early 2014 will render the Government’s welfare reforms null and void, such will be the likely distortion of the labour market. In addition, as things stand, it is very likely to put a huge strain on delivery in pinch points across the UK, an issue to which I will return later. The UK Statistics Authority estimated that in the second quarter of 2012, there were 1.4 million EU citizens in work in the UK, 107,000 unemployed and 436,000 economically inactive, and 388,000 children of EU citizens.

The Bill is not about ending immigration from the EU, although there is little empirical or academic evidence that mass EU migration since 2004 has been a definitive net benefit to the UK. Instead, it is intended to ensure that Her Majesty’s Government vary the free movement directive, not least as a response to significant public concerns about immigration. It is about not repealing but disapplying the current directive.

The Bill is about ensuring that the most talented and hard-working foreign workers and their families come to this country from the EU to help our economy grow and thrive in a fiercely competitive global marketplace. It also highlights an asymmetry in the Government’s stated policy on reducing net migration to the tens of thousands. We rightly focus on that policy, but we accept EU migration as a fait accompli.

Hon. Members will recall a television documentary shown in 2006 entitled “The Poles Are Coming!”, which presaged the impact of mass EU migration on my constituency. I make no apology for seeing the issue through the prism of my constituency and the impact that uncontrolled and unplanned mass migration has had on it. Peterborough is a regional hub for transport, logistics, food processing and packaging, agriculture and horticulture, but youth unemployment nevertheless stands at 11.5%, almost twice the regional average, and almost 12,000 people in my constituency are on out-of-work benefits. Some 34,480 national insurance numbers have been issued in Peterborough since 2004, in a local authority area whose population in 2001 was 156,000, and new arrivals make up one in five of the population, which is currently estimated at 184,000.

There is an acute shortage of primary school places. In nine of the 33 primary schools in my constituency, two thirds of the children do not speak English as their first language, and in two schools the figure is more than 96%. The problem is one of not just resources but churn—the in-term movement in and out of schools of hundreds of children of itinerant and other seasonal workers—which regrettably has an impact on educational attainment. Likewise, health services in the city are under considerable strain. The number of births in the city leapt from 3,395 in 2003 to 4,680 last year, and GP registrations of EU migrants have almost trebled over the past 10 years.

The free movement directive is primary legislation that governs the right of member state nationals, and their families, to move or reside freely in other member states for up to three months, without any conditions other than that they hold a valid passport and identity card. The directive specifically makes it clear, inter alia, that people should have “sufficient resources” for themselves and their family members so as not to become a “burden” on the “social assistance cover” in the host country, and that they should hold comprehensive sickness insurance.

The host member state is not obliged to provide social assistance during the first three months of residence, and UK law precludes EU citizens and family members from residing purely on the basis of that initial right to reside. Indeed, the UK has a habitual residence test. Perversely, however, some benefits such as jobseeker’s allowance are granted under UK law. That is an example of the UK gold plating as the directive’s exemption is clear.

Host member states are permitted to require EU citizens and their family members to register with the authorities and impose proportionate and non-discriminatory sanctions on those who fail to do so. The UK Government fail to do that, and—bizarrely—the Home Office told me in a parliamentary answer last week that such actions are “optional”.

Member states are also permitted to restrict rights of entry on grounds of

“public policy, public security or public health”.

However, the UK Government have failed ever to test those conditions or the specific issue of “proportionality” that is implicit in the directive in respect of the deportation of persistent and prolific criminals who are EU citizens. The Government have rarely invoked their ability to refuse or withdraw any right under the directive in cases of

“abuse of rights or fraud”.

Recently, the Spanish Government, which are facing calamitous levels of unemployment, have begun to interpret the free movement directive much more robustly. All EU citizens and family members have to register with the authorities if they wish to reside in Spain for more than three months, and through that process the Spanish authorities can check whether the requirements of the directive regarding residence after that period are fulfilled. The authorities also require notification of any change of address or marital status.

In summary, the free movement directive confers the right to reside on many people who do not work or who do not have enough resources to be self-sufficient. It allows ready access to the UK’s welfare system and throws up obstacles to the implementation of robust systems to check that nationals from other EU member states, and their families, are abiding by the rules and do not pose a drain on the health service or a criminal threat to society. It prevents automatic deportation of nationals of other EU member states when they have committed a crime.

The formula in the Bill for stopping objectionable aspects of EU law, such as the free movement directive, is straightforward. The legislation simply has to state that its provisions apply notwithstanding any provision of the European Communities Act 1972.

Under my Bill, EU nationals and their family members would have the right to reside in the UK for up to three months, on the basis of a valid passport or ID card. That would facilitate tourism, and give those willing the opportunity to find work. With the right to reside for three months, EU nationals would have to be in work or self-sufficient, and they would gain access to benefits only in exceptional circumstances. EU nationals and their family members would need to be registered, and they would have no access to public funds during the first 18 months of residence. After 18 months, British citizens would be given priority over EU nationals for local authority housing allocation, which is in particularly scarce supply. There would be no right to reside based solely on being in vocational training until the EU national in question had completed five years’ continuous employment.

The right of permanent residence would typically be granted only after a continuous 10-year period of legal residence, rather than five years as at present. EU nationals and family members would be deported after being convicted of a crime in the UK and sentenced to 12 months’ imprisonment, or more, in the same way as other foreign nationals.

Time does not permit me to elucidate further, but this Bill would be popular and promote fairness and equity, not least for the hard-pressed UK taxpayer. It would facilitate the migration of only the most talented EU citizens to our country, and seek to restore the almost forgotten principle of member state subsidiarity and UK national sovereignty. It is for us to decide about our borders and who we allow into our country, and for those reasons, I strongly commend this Bill to the House.