Type: Judgment

Authority: European Authorities: Euopean Union' Court of Justice

Date: 12/22/2010

Subject: The Court, interpreting Decision No 1/80 adopted by the Association Council created by the Agreement between the European Economic Community and Turkey, affirmed that a Turkish national, who, as a member of the family of a Turkish worker who is duly registered as belonging to the labour force of a Member State and as a result of his residing with his spouse for a continuous period of at least five years, enjoys the rights to respond to any offer of employment and to have free access to any paid employment, does not lose those rights on account of his divorce, which took place after those rights were acquired. It is not an abuse of rights for a Turkish national to rely on a right legally acquired even though the person concerned, after acquiring that right through his former wife, committed a serious offence against her which gave rise to a criminal conviction. By contrast, it is possible to adopt a measure ordering the expulsion of a Turkish national who has been convicted of criminal offences, provided that his personal conduct constitutes a present, genuine and sufficiently serious threat to a fundamental interest of society.

Parties: Bozkurt

Classification: Citizens’ rights - Art. 45 Freedom of residence

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