26 May 2012 12:14:Theresa May has already made her plans known about immigration from outside the EU - with minimum provable incomes for those wishing to settle in the UK. And in the present climate, I am not surprised that she is taking her proposals further and including EU members.
However, these are proposals only, but of course they provide excellent news material for the Telegraph (and no doubt the Daily Mail later).
Under EU legislation, the UK, as a member state, cannot restrict free movement of EU citizens. However, individual member states do have the power to fit this in with their own legislation.
Recently we have had the case of Spain saying that those applying for residencia will have to prove that they have health cover and a minimum provable income.
Whatever some may say, Spain are allowed to do this under EU Law. They cannot restrict free movement of EU citizens across Spanish borders, but they can restrict their rights to claim residency here (enter John, who will tell me that residencia does not apply to EU citizens, but the concept of residencia does, in that EU citizens are required to sign on the foreigners register in order to obtain their green card).
This, in effect, means that those who do not fit the residency criteria will find it very difficult to work legally in Spain and claim free state health care.
So there is no reason why the British Home Secretary could not apply similar measures with regards EU citizens entering the UK. She could not restrict their right of entry, but she could make it very difficult for them to obtain free health care and benefits.
Nevertheless, for the Telegraph to claim that migrants from the EU will be stopped from entering the UK altogether, is probably using editorial licence (and certainly seems so, as the writer refers to visas, which do not apply to members of the EU).
If the UK does this, then they will be going against EU legislation and opening a political argument which I am not at all sure Cameron will want to take part in at this present time.
But who knows for sure?
Editted with a further comment on reading up a bit more
There are emergency procedures where EU member states can apply stricter controls on immigration, even to EU members, but this applies to an emergency and short term controls only.
The collapse of the Euro or a Eurozone member leaving the Euro could be seen as an emergency. But to apply this to EU citizens from Spain in the expectation of this happening seems a little far fetched.
This message was last edited by summer70 on 26/05/2012.
This message was last edited by summer70 on 26/05/2012.
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