Foreign Ministry dismisses EC's criticism of restrictions on free movement

Prague/Brussels, Jan 26 (CTK) - The Czech Republic believes that its approach to foreign applicants for a Czech stay permit is not at odds with the EU's principle of the free movement of people, Foreign Ministry spokesman Vit Kolar told CTK in reaction to the EC's criticism yesterday.

The EC has threatened to file an action against the Czech Republic over its alleged failure to observe the free movement principle. Among others, the EC minds Prague asking foreign applicants for a residence permit to prove that they have ensured accommodation in the Czech Republic.

The EC says this is not in harmony with the free movement directive that all EU states were supposed to transpose in their legislation by April 2006.

One of the directive's goals is to prevent excessive administrative burdening of people.

Kolar said Prague believes its requirement is not at odds with the EU directive because permanent stay applications do not fall under the directive's jurisdiction.

"Even if we admitted that the directive does apply to the issue in question, it requires that every stay permit certificate include [the applicant's] address, which must therefore be provided [by him/her], which is how we understand [the directive]," Kolar said.

He said the required document confirming that the applicant has ensured accommodation in the Czech Republic "mainly serves to verify the given address."

Apart from the Czechs, another 11 states had problem with transposing the directive in their respective laws in the past. However, all except for Lithuania reacted to the EC's warnings by adjusting their laws accordingly.

The Czech Republic has two months to react to the EC's criticism. If Brussels finds Prague's response insufficient, it may hand the issue over to the European Court of Justice, which may impose sanctions on the Czechs.

This, however, happens only rarely on similar occasions.

Kolar said the court cannot impose a financial sanction on the Czech Republic. "It could do so only if the Czech Republic failed to respect a possible sentencing verdict," he said.