Opinion of the Advocate General — ECLI:EU:C:2005:499
Date: 2005-09-06
Language of the case: German
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: Association Agreement;External relations;Free movement of workers
Procedure: Reference for a preliminary ruling
Origin: Germany

Summary of the Judgment International agreements – EEC-Turkey Association Agreement – Association Council established by the EEC-Turkey Association Agreement – Decision No 1/80 – Freedom of movement for persons – Workers – Access by Turkish nationals duly registered as belonging to the labour market of a Member State to paid employment of their choice in that Member State and the corresponding residence permit (Decision No 1/80 of the EEC-Turkey Association Council, Art. 6(1) and (2)) Article 6 of Decision No 1/80 of the EEC-Turkey Association Council is to be interpreted as meaning that: – enjoyment of the rights conferred on a Turkish worker by the third indent of paragraph 1 of that article, namely that a Turkish worker is to enjoy free access, after four years of legal employment in a Member State, to paid employment of his choice, presupposes in principle that the person concerned has already fulfilled the conditions set out in the second indent of that paragraph, namely that he has worked for three years for the same employer; – a Turkish worker who does not yet enjoy the right of free access to any paid employment of his choice under that third indent must be in legal employment without interruption in the host Member State unless he can rely on a legitimate reason of the type laid down in Article 6(2) to justify his temporary absence from the labour force; – Article 6(2) covers interruptions in periods of legal employment, which are characteristic of the occupation in question, since such interruptions are beyond the employee’s control. (see para. 69, operative part)