COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSIONTO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENTpursuant to Article 294(6) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Unionconcerning the Position of the Council on the adoption of a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on a single application procedure for a single permit for third-country nationals to reside and work in the territory of a Member State and on a common set of rights for third-country workers legally residing in a Member State
Date: 2011-11-25
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: EU migration policy, migrant worker, residence permit, work permit

EUROPEAN COMMISSION 

Brussels, 25.11.2011 
COM(2011) 832 final 

2007/0229 (COD) 

COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION 
TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT 

pursuant to Article 294(6) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union 

concerning the 

Position of the Council on the adoption of a Directive of the European Parliament and of 
the Council on a single application procedure for a single permit for third-country 
nationals to reside and work in the territory of a Member State and on a common set of 
rights for third-country workers legally residing in a Member State 

 
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
2007/0229 (COD) 

COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION 
TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT 

pursuant to Article 294(6) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union 

concerning the 

Position of the Council on the adoption of a Directive of the European Parliament and of 
the Council on a single application procedure for a single permit for third-country 
nationals to reside and work in the territory of a Member State and on a common set of 
rights for third-country workers legally residing in a Member State 

1. 

BACKGROUND 

Date of transmission to the European Parliament and to the Council 
(COM(2007) 638 final - 2007/0229(COD) 

26 October 2007 

Date  of  the  opinion  of  the  European  Economic  and  Social 
Committee: 

9 July 2008 

Date of the opinion of the Committee of the Regions 

18 June 2008 

Date of the position of the European Parliament, first reading: 

24 March 2011 

Foreseen date of adoption of the Council's position: 

24 November 2011 

2. 

PURPOSE OF THE COMMISSION PROPOSAL 

The objective of the Commission proposal is twofold, on the one hand to introduce a single 
application procedure for third-country nationals who would like to reside in a Member State 
for the purpose of work, along with a single (residence and work) permit in order to cut red 
tape, and on the other hand to provide for a common set of rights to all third-country workers 
legally  residing  in  a  Member  State.  The  common  set  of  rights  to  third-country  workers  is 
ensured by defining a list of areas1 where equal treatment with nationals shall be granted. 

3. 

COMMENTS ON THE COUNCIL’S POSITION 

The Council's position is the result of a long negotiation process. Following the first reading 
position  of  the  European  Parliament  on  24  March  2011,  an  agreement  was  finally  reached 
between the co-legislators' on the outstanding issues in a Trilogue of 22 June 2011. The only 

1 

Working  conditions;  freedom  of  association,  education  and  vocational  training,  recognition  of 
diplomas;  social  security,  export  of  acquired  pensions;  tax  benefits,  access  to  goods  and  services 
including procedure for housing and advice services of employment offices. 

EN 

2 

   EN 

 
 
 
 
 
                                                 
open  point  was  the  question  of  correlation  tables,  on  which  a  horizontal  solution  has  been 
found in the meantime.2 

Coreper confirmed the agreement on the text on 29 June 2011. On 15 July 2011 the Chairman 
of the LIBE Committee sent a letter to the Council Presidency confirming the agreement of 
the rapporteurs  (the  LIBE,  the  EMPL  and the Shadow-rapporteurs)  on the text approved by 
Coreper  and  on  the  Interinstitutional  statement  annexed  to  it,  and  stating  that  if  these  texts 
were  formally  transmitted  to  the  European  Parliament  as  the  Council's  position,  he  would 
recommend  that  the  Members  of  the  LIBE  committee  and  subsequently  the  plenary  accept 
them  without  amendments.  Coreper  reached  a  political  agreement  on  this  basis  on  20  July 
2011.  

The  main  differences  between  the  Common  Position  and  the  original  Commission  proposal 
are set out below. 

- Precision and some limitiations to the scope (Article 3) 

The Common Position on the one hand specifies and on the other further limits the scope of 
the proposal.  

First, it gives a precision to the scope of the equal treatment provisions (Article 3(1)(b) and 
(ba)  new)  by  referring  to  the  two  categories  of  possible  beneficiaries;  those  third-country 
nationals  who  have  been  admitted  to  work  and  those  with  other  admission  purpose  but 
allowed  to  work.  This  change  confirms  the  Commission's  intention  to  have  a  wide  scope 
including  also  those  who  are  allowed  to  work  but  came  with  a  different  initial  purpose  of 
admission.  However  these  Amendments  specify  that  the  latter  category  should  have  a 
residence permit3.  

Second,  it  excludes  from  the  scope  sea-farers  and  those  third-country  nationals  benefiting 
from international protection, temporary protection or protection under national law recalling 
that their rights are regulated in other instruments.  

Third, it excludes self-employed workers from the scope as well. This exclusion is however 
only  of  a  declarative  nature,  since  the  definition  of  third-country  workers  of  the  proposal 
(Article 2 (b)) makes it clear that only those in a paid relationship are targeted.  

Finally  there  is  a  possible  derogation  -  but  only  as  regards  the  rules  on  the  single 
procedure/permit  -  for  students  and  those  who  are  authorised  to  work  for  shorter  than  6 
months. These latter two categories remain subject to the equal treatment provisions in Article 
12. 

- Parallel existence of a national long-term visa scheme (Article 2(c) and Article 3(4)) 

By replacing the reference to "any authorisation" with "a residence permit" in Article 2(c) the 
Common  Position  allows  Member  States  to  keep  their  long-term  visa  system.  The 
Commission's objective was to have the single permit as the exclusive authorisation to work, 

2 

3 

A horizontal solution is found and outlined in a Joint political declaration of the Parliament, the Council 
and the Commission.  
Under Regulation 1030/2002 of 13 June 2002 laying down a uniform format for residence permits for 
third-country nationals. 

EN 

3 

   EN 

 
                                                 
but  given  the  developments  in  that  field  (Regulation  265/2010  Article  1(1)(2)  limits  the 
duration  of  long-term  visas  to  a  year  and  recognises  such  documents  for  travel  purposes 
within the Schengen area in the EU), the Commission can agree to allow Member States to 
issue  long-term  visas  parallel  to  single  permits,  provided  the  existence  of  long-term  visas 
would not result in a difference of rights for migrant workers holding such a paper. 

Precisions to the application procedure (Articles 4, 5, 8 and 10) 

Procedural  rules  are  further  specified  in  the  Common  Position.  Upon  the  request  of  the 
European Parliament reference is made to the possible applicants (the third-country national, 
his/her  future  employer  or  either  of  the  two).  As  regards  the  rules  on  fees,  the  principle  of 
proportionality  is  maintained,  but  provisions  on  the  possible  calculation  on  the  basis  of  the 
actual service are added. Finally as part of the final agreement at the request of Council the 
procedural  deadline  was  extended  to  four  months  as  opposed  to  the  original  three  months 
proposed by the Commission. 

-  Allowing  to  store  the  additional  information  electronically  or  in  a  paper  format 
(Articles 6 and 7) 

As  a  part  of  the  overall  agreement,  at  the  request  of  Council  the  possibility  is  given  for 
Member  States  to  store  the  information  -  which  does  not  fit  into  the  harmonised  format4  - 
electronically or in an additional paper document. Such a possibility can serve the purpose of 
better control of migration, but it is in the interest of the migrant worker as well to possess all 
the  information  related  to  his/her  employment  which  can  prevent  his/her  exploitation  (eg.: 
working hours). However it should be ensured that the possibility of such papers will not lead 
to the re-introduction of work permits. 

- The right to equal treatment (Article 12) 

The Common Position has taken a more limitative approach as regards access to goods and 
services by allowing Member States to apply the equal treatment provisions only to those who 
are in actual employment (Article 12 (2)d). As regards access to education, equal treatment is 
guaranteed  to  registered  unemployed  migrant workers as well however other limitations  are 
possible as regards fees and other prerequisites , but as a minimum guarantee equal treatment 
in  the  area  of  vocational  training  linked  to  the  concrete  employment  activity  needs  to  be 
ensured (Article 12(2)a).  

At  the  same  time  at  the  request  of  the  European  Parliament,  equal  treatment  provisions 
became  more  ambitious  than  the  Commission  proposal  for  social  security  by  including  not 
only  those  who  are  currently  employed  but  also  those  who  have  been  employed  for  a 
minimum  of  6  months  and  registered  as  unemployed.  Further,  the  co-legislators  agreed  to 
extend the equal treatment rights for working conditions, and freedom of association (Article 
12  (1)a  and  b)  also  to  those  who  are  currently  not  employed.  The  right  to  export  acquired 
pensions  under  the  same  conditions  and  at  the  same  rates  were  maintained  by  the  co-
legislators with some legitimate technical precision (Article 12 (4)). 

4 

Regulation 1030/2002 of 13 June 2002 laying down a uniform format for residence permits for third-
country nationals 

EN 

4 

   EN 

 
                                                 
There is one specific limitation in the area of social security; family benefits does not have to 
be granted to those who work on the basis of a visa or have been authorised to work for six 
months or less or were admitted as students (Article 12 2. (e)). The Commission underlines its 
preference to apply the principle of equal treatment without any regard to the format of papers 
(visa or single permit) which the migrant workers possess. Taking into account however that 
the  long-term  visa  holder  workers  will  benefit  from  equal  treatment  as  regards  all  rights 
except  for  this  specific  benefit  and  will  benefit  from  full  equal  treatment  as  regards  family 
benefits in a cross-border situation,5 the Commission does not object to this new provision. 

- Transposition (Recital 32 and Article 16) 

As indicated above the only open point upon the last Trilogue between the co-legislators was 
the issue of correlation tables, on which a horizontal solution has been found in the meantime. 
Therefore - upon the justified request of the Commission - recital 32 of the Common Position 
states that Member States will undertake to accompany the notification of their transposition 
measures with one or more documents explaining the relationship between the components of 
this directive and the corresponding parts of national transposition instruments.  

4. 

CONCLUSION 

The  Common  Position  satisfies  the  Commission's  original  objective  to  simplify  procedures 
and to have a single permit and to protect migrant workers, to provide them with a series of 
work-related socio-economic rights on the basis - as far as possible - of equal treatment with 
EU workers, thereby creating a level playing  field throughout the EU. The substance  of the 
Council's  Position  is,  therefore  broadly  in  line  with  the  Commission's  proposal  and  can 
therefore be supported.  

5 

Regulation  (EU)  No  1231/10  of  24th  November  2010  extending  Regulation  (EC)  No  883/2004  and 
Regulation  (EC)  No  987/2009  to  nationals  of  third  countries  who  are  not  already  covered  by  these 
Regulations solely on the ground of their nationality. 

EN 

5 

   EN