Opinion of the Advocate General — ECLI:EU:C:1999:561
Date: 1999-11-18
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: Austria

Summary of the Judgment 
International agreements — EEC-Turkey Association Agreement — Association Council 
established by the EEC-Turkey Association Agreement — Decision concerning freedom of 
movement for workers — Family living together — Right of members of the family of a 
Turkish worker duly registered as belonging to the labour force in a Member State to work 
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SUMMARY — CASE C-65/98 
in an employed capacity in that Member State — Condition — Actual residence with the 
migrant worker for an uninterrupted period of three years — Periods to be taken into 
account for calculation of that period — Periods of marriage interrupted by a period of 
cohabitation — Included 
(Decision No 1/80 of the EEC-Turkey Association Council, Art. 7, first para.) 
The first paragraph of Article 7 of Decision 
No 1/80 of the EEC-Turkey Association 
Council must be interpreted as covering the 
situation of a Turkish national who has 
been authorised in her capacity as the 
spouse of a Turkish worker duly registered 
as belonging to the labour force of the host 
Member State to join that worker there, in 
circumstances where that spouse, having 
divorced before the expiry of the three-year 
qualification period laid down in the first 
indent of that provision, still continued in 
fact to live uninterruptedly with her former 
spouse until the date on which the two 
former spouses remarried. Such a Turkish 
national must be regarded as legally resi­
dent in that Member State within the 
meaning of that provision, so that in that 
State she may rely directly on her right, 
after three years, to respond to any offer of 
employment, and, after five years, to enjoy 
free access to any paid employment of her 
choice. 
(see para. 48 and operative part) 
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