Rhimou Chakroun v Minister van Buitenlandse Zaken.
Date: 2010-03-04
41. Article 4(1) of the Directive imposes precise positive obligations, with corresponding clearly defined individual rights, on the Member States, since it requires them, in the cases determined by the Directive, to authorise family reunification of certain members of the sponsor’s family, without being left a margin of appreciation (Case C‑540/03 Parliament  v Council  [2006] ECR I‑5769, paragraph 60).
42. However, that provision is subject to compliance with the conditions referred to, in particular, in Chapter IV of the Directive. Article 7(1)(c) of the Directive forms part of those conditions and allows Member States to require evidence that the sponsor has stable and regular resources which are sufficient to maintain himself and the members of his family without recourse to the social assistance system of the Member State concerned. That provision also states that Member States are to evaluate those resources by reference to their nature and regularity and may take into account the level of minimum national wages and pensions as well as the number of family members.
43. Since authorisation of family reunification is the general rule, the faculty provided for in Article 7(1)(c) of the Directive must be interpreted strictly. Furthermore, the margin for manoeuvre which the Member States are recognised as having must not be used by them in a manner which would undermine the objective of the Directive, which is to promote family reunification, and the effectiveness thereof.
44. In that regard, it follows from recital 2 in the preamble to the Directive that measures concerning family reunification should be adopted in conformity with the obligation to protect the family and respect family life enshrined in many instruments of international law. The Directive respects the fundamental rights and observes the principles recognised in particular in Article 8 of the ECHR and in the Charter. It follows that the provisions of the Directive, particularly Article 7(1)(c) thereof, must be interpreted in the light of the fundamental rights and, more particularly, in the light of the right to respect for family life enshrined in both the ECHR and the Charter. It should be added that, under the first subparagraph of Article 6(1) TEU, the European Union recognises the rights, freedoms and principles set out in the Charter, as adapted at Strasbourg on 12 December 2007 (OJ 2007 C 303, p. 1), which has the same legal value as the Treaties.
46. The first sentence of Article 7(1)(c) of the Directive sets up, on the one hand, the concept of ‘stable and regular resources which are sufficient to maintain [the applicant]’ against, on the other, that of ‘social assistance’. It follows from this contrast that the concept of ‘social assistance’ in the Directive refers to assistance granted by the public authorities, whether at national, regional or local level, which can be claimed by an individual, in this case the sponsor, who does not have stable and regular resources which are sufficient to maintain himself and the members of his family and who, by reason of that fact, is likely to become a burden on the social assistance system of the host Member State during his period of residence (see, by way of analogy, Case C‑291/05 Eind  [2007] ECR I‑10719, paragraph 29).
47. The second sentence of Article 7(1)(c) of the Directive allows Member States to take into account the level of minimum national wages and pensions as well as the number of family members when evaluating the sponsor’s resources. As has been pointed out in paragraph 43 of the present judgment, that faculty must be exercised in a manner which avoids undermining the objective of the Directive, which is to promote family reunification, and the effectiveness thereof.
48. Since the extent of needs can vary greatly depending on the individuals, that authorisation must, moreover, be interpreted as meaning that the Member States may indicate a certain sum as a reference amount, but not as meaning that they may impose a minimum income level below which all family reunifications will be refused, irrespective of an actual examination of the situation of each applicant. That interpretation is supported by Article 17 of the Directive, which requires individual examination of applications for family reunification.
52. Having regard to those factors, the answer to the first question is that the phrase ‘recourse to the social assistance system’ in Article 7(1)(c) of the Directive must be interpreted as precluding a Member State from adopting rules in respect of family reunification which result in such reunification being refused to a sponsor who has proved that he has stable and regular resources which are sufficient to maintain himself and the members of his family, but who, given the level of his resources, will nevertheless be entitled to claim special assistance in order to meet exceptional, individually determined, essential living costs, tax refunds granted by local authorities on the basis of his income, or income-support measures in the context of local-authority minimum-income policies (‘minimabeleid’).
The second question
64. Having regard to that lack of distinction, intended by the European Union legislature, based on the time at which the family is constituted, and taking account of the necessity of not interpreting the provisions of the Directive restrictively and not depriving them of their effectiveness, the Member States did not have discretion to reintroduce that distinction in their national legislation transposing the Directive (see, by way of analogy, Case C‑127/08 Metock and Others  [2008] ECR I‑6241, paragraph 93). Furthermore, the capacity of a sponsor to have regular resources which are sufficient to maintain himself and the members of his family within the meaning of Article 7(1)(c) of the Directive cannot in any way depend on the point in time at which he constitutes his family.