A non-binding opinion from the European Court of Justice advocate-general stated that EU citizens were entitled to continue family life with their spouse in the new country, according to a global media report Wednesday.
The opinion came as the court dismissed Britain’s refusal to grant residency to an Algerian who married a woman who had Spanish nationality before she took UK citizenship.
The case centres on EU citizenship rights that will feature heavily in the opening phase of the Brexit negotiations that begin next month. In anticipation of Britain’s withdrawal, many UK citizens have taken steps to gain nationality in other EU states to protect rights they have under European law.
Legal expert said non-EU nationals had the right to live in a member state in which an EU family member lived before that family member acquired the nationality of that country. Citing free movement rights, he said EU citizens should be able to continue the family life they have led with their spouse in the member states whose nationality they have acquired.
The case involves Toufik Lounes, an Algerian national, who entered the UK in 2010 on a six-month visitor visa and then overstayed illegally. In 2014 he married Perla Nerea García Ormazábal, a Spanish national who had become a naturalised British citizen in 2009 after moving to the UK as a student in 1996 and working there full-time from 2004.
After the marriage the UK refused to grant Mr Lounes the residence card he sought as the family member of a national of the European Economic Area, which includes the EU and a group of other countries and is covered by free movement rules within Europe’s single market.
