EU citizens may move freely within the territory of the Member States in compliance with a set of standard rules established by the Union and adopted by Italy in 2007. In the 16th legislature, some changes were made to these rules to avoid a Community infringement procedure.
Moreover, access to the labour market for citizens of Romania and Bulgaria, new accession countries, already subject to some restrictions, has been fully liberalised since 2012, helping EU countries to solve their workforce needs.
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The regulation of the free movement of EU citizens
Freedom of movement is one of the fundamental principles for the creation of a common area within the European Union.
Community discipline on the matter has been built up over the years with the adoption of various measures that have separately regulated the freedom of movement of different categories of EU citizens, such as workers and students. In 2004, to overcome the sectoral and fragmentary nature of the legislation, the European Commission adopted Directive 2004/38/EC, which replaced the previous provisions.
EU countries adapted their domestic law to the new discipline with a Legislative Decree that regulates the modalities for the exercise of the right of free movement and residence in the territory of the State of EU citizens and their accompanying or joining family members, the prerequisites of the right of permanent residence, and the limitations to these rights for reasons of State security, public order, and public safety.
Romanian and Bulgarian workers
Like other EU Member States, Italy has decided to exercise the option provided by the Treaties to maintain certain restrictions on access to work for citizens from the new accession countries, Romania and Bulgaria. The decision was taken by the government in December 2006, on the eve of the two countries’ accession to the Union. The measure establishing the restriction has been extended several times, most recently until 31 December 2011. Since 1 January 2012, these restrictions have lapsed.
The security package
As part of the ‘security package’, the Government also gave preliminary approval to a draft legislative decree amending the regulations of Legislative Decree 30/2007, providing for certain restrictions on the right of movement of EU citizens. Subsequently, the scheme was shelved following some remarks by the European Commission. As illustrated by the Minister of the Interior at the hearing of 15 October 2008 before the Schengen Parliamentary Committee, the European Commission expressed an unfavourable opinion on the text, considering the sanction of expulsion to be excessive and requesting that it be replaced with a simple invitation to leave the national territory; the Italian Government accepted the request, although it did not agree with it, with the result that the amended text of the draft decree would not entail significant changes to the current legislation, such as to justify its final approval.
Decree-Law 89/2011
However, the implementation of EU legislation on the matter was not considered satisfactory. To avoid the EU infringement procedure for the incomplete or incorrect transposition of the aforementioned Directive 2004/38/EC, the Government issued the Decree-Law 89/ 2011, which also intervenes on the failure to transpose the EU Directive 2008/115/EC, the so-called Return Directive.
For the part concerning the free movement of EU citizens, the decree-law introduces changes in the Legislative Decree 30/2007, transposing Directive 2004/38/EC. These changes concern:
