Hasan Güzeli v Oberbürgermeister der Stadt Aachen.
Date: 2006-10-26
24. The Court has consistently held that Article 6(1) of Decision No 1/80 has direct effect in the Member States and that Turkish nationals who satisfy its conditions may therefore rely directly on the rights which the three indents of that provision confer on them progressively, according to the duration of their employment in the host Member State (see, in particular, Case C‑192/89 Sevince  [1990] ECR I‑3461, paragraph 26, and Case C‑188/00 Kurz  [2002] ECR I‑10691, paragraph 26).
25. The rights that that provision confers on a Turkish worker with regard to employment necessarily imply the existence of a concomitant right of residence for the person concerned, without which the right to have access to the employment market and to take up employment would be rendered totally ineffective ( Kurz , paragraph 27).
26. It is apparent from the very wording of Article 6(1) of Decision No 1/80 that that provision requires the person concerned to be a Turkish worker in a Member State, to be duly registered as belonging to the labour force of the host Member State and to have been in legal employment there for a certain period ( Kurz , cited above, paragraph 28).
32. It is settled case‑law that the concept of being ‘duly registered as belonging to the labour force’ referred to in Article 6(1) of Decision No 1/80 must be regarded as referring to all workers who have complied with the conditions laid down by law and regulation in the host Member State governing entry into its territory and employment and are thus entitled to pursue an occupation in that State ( Kurz , paragraph 39).
33. Entitlement to the rights set out in the three indents of Article 6(1) of Decision No 1/80 is therefore subject only to the condition that the Turkish worker has complied with the legislation of the host Member State governing entry into its territory and employment (Case C‑340/97 Nazli  [2000] ECR I‑957, paragraph 32).
36. Since the Court has no power, within the framework of Article 234 EC, to give preliminary rulings on the interpretation of rules pertaining to national law (see Case C‑341/94 Allain  [1996] ECR I‑4631, paragraph 11), it is for the national court to make the requisite findings in that regard in order to establish whether, on the relevant date, Mr Güzeli had complied with the conditions imposed by the German authorities for his paid employment, in particular in light of the importance, in German law, of the condition relating to his employment at the Café Marmara attached to his residence permit. The national court will have to determine whether that condition took precedence over the work permit granted to Mr Güzeli on 31 July 1997, which was valid in respect of any type of occupation.
38. If, on the other hand, that court reaches the conclusion that, on the relevant date, Mr Güzeli was duly registered as belonging to that labour force, he might be able to claim the rights under the first indent of Article 6(1) of Decision No 1/80 in view of the periods of employment that he had completed at Lambertz. It will be for the national court to ascertain whether that employment was ‘legal employment’ within the meaning of Article 6(1). In this respect, it should be borne in mind that the concept of ‘legal employment’ is a Community law concept and presupposes a stable and secure situation as a member of the labour force of a Member State (see Case C‑98/96 Ertanir  [1997] ECR I‑5179, paragraph 59, and Sevince , paragraph 30).
42. That provision is solely intended to avoid a situation where a Turkish worker returning to work after having been compelled to cease work on grounds of long‑term sickness or involuntary unemployment was required, in the same way as a Turkish national who had not yet been in paid employment in the Member State concerned, to recommence the periods of legal employment laid down in the first to third indents of Article 6(1) of Decision No 1/80 (see, to that effect, Case C‑171/95 Tetik  [1997] ECR I‑329, paragraph 39, and Case C‑230/03 Sedef [2006] ECR I‑157, paragraph 52).
52. In this respect, in his observations to the Court, Mr Güzeli referred to the interpretation of an analogous provision in the Cooperation Agreement between the European Economic Community and the Kingdom of Morocco, signed in Rabat on 27 April 1976 and concluded on behalf of the Community by Council Regulation (EEC) No 2211/78 of 26 September 1978 (OJ 1978 L 264, p. 1) which was given by the Court in Case C‑416/96 Eddline El-Yassini  [1999] ECR I‑1209, paragraphs 62 to 64. According to that interpretation, although a Member State is not in principle prohibited from refusing to extend the residence permit of a Moroccan national whom it has previously authorised to enter its territory and to work there where the initial reason for the grant of a right of residence no longer exists at the time that his residence permit expires, the situation would be different if the host Member State had granted the Moroccan migrant worker specific rights in relation to employment which were more extensive than the rights of residence conferred on him by that State.