EU Rights

ECAS empowers citizens to exercise their rights and campaigns for an inclusive, transparent and democratic Europe, where the benefits of EU citizenship can be fully tapped.

The right to free movement of persons is one of the four fundamental freedoms underpinning the European project. It is also the right which EU citizens consider to be the most notable achievement of European integration.

ECAS has an extensive track record in helping EU citizens in exercising their right to free movement and in-depth knowledge of the problems associated with its implementation.

For the last 20 years, ECAS has been running “Your Europe Advice” – an EU-funded advice service provided by ECAS’ team of 60 legal experts in all 24 official EU languages and across all 28 EU Member States. Annually, ECAS’ legal experts respond to about 20,000 enquiries from citizens on their rights under EU law covering social security, residence and visas, work issues, taxes, and more.

In addition, in partnership with the University of Kent in Brussels, ECAS established the EU Rights Clinic, which helps EU citizens and their family members who are faced with complex problems when moving around the EU. From January 2013 to December 2018, the EU Rights Clinic handled over 732 cases involving 830 individual clients and 6 NGO clients.

Considering the deteriorating framework of free movement rights’ enforcement in recent times, in addition to the populist rhetoric on the issue in certain Member States, ECAS advocates for the promotion and enforcement of citizens’ rights through:

• complaints and petitions filed by the EU Rights Clinic against Member States that have failed to secure the rights of EU citizens;
• identification of good practices in the implementation of the EU Citizenship Directive at national level;
• analysis of the problems faced by EU mobile citizens, presented at an annual forum ‘State of the Union Citizens’ Rights’ conference;
• strengthening the capacity and knowledge of civil servants and relevant national, regional and local experts on EU citizenship and related political rights.

In the timeframe 2019 – 2022 ECAS is working to:

• Provide legal advice and help to EU citizens who exercise their right of free movement.
• Promote the enforcement of European fundamental freedoms and good governance in the EU.
• Raise awareness of all aspects of citizens’ right to free movement in the EU.
• Promote and enhance the exercise of political rights by mobile EU citizens.
• Provide specialised training to rights advice organisations.