The Impact of European Immigration Law on the Free Movement of Persons Area

The European Internal Market is one of the major achievements of the European integration, and as stipulated in Article 14 ECT it consist of ''an area without internal frontiers in which the free movement of goods, persons, services and capital is ensured in accordance with the provisions in the treaty''. The free movement of persons is one of the four freedoms guaranteed by the Community which regulates the movement not only of EU citizens within the Community but also of third country nationals entering the Community. Consequently, the need for creation of European immigration law was more than clear considering the free movement of persons policy and the area without internal frontiers. The main reason for a European cooperation in immigration matters was the intention to prevent excessive immigration and illegal entry of third country nationals. Therefore, a common European policy on this subject was created starting by remedying the deficit of the Maastricht Treaty by creation of the Amsterdam Treaty and the communitarization of immigration matters in its Title IV, continuing with the establishment of the Schengen acquis. The first part of the thesis deals with explanation of the immigration law development by giving a brief overview of the EC Treaty immigration clauses. Next, I am going through the Schengen acquis and its historical development, present content and its exceptions, that is to say the positions of UK, Ireland and Denmark respectively. The main part of the thesis focus on the Schengen Implementing Convention and particularly its provisions on visa requirements for short visits, as well as the controversies this clauses are creating in practice and the proposals for their solution. At the end I am elaborating on Macedonia's situation regarding Schengen visa policy, problems it is facing and concrete suggestions for their overcoming. The purpose of the paper is to examine the impact that SIC immigration provisions have on the area of free movement of persons, looking at whether the SIC provisions may influence the possibilities for persons to move to the territory of a Schengen Country for a short visits. The analysis lead to the conclusion that advantages for EC nationals are quite small, yet the negative effects on non EC nationals are considerable, which accordingly has negative influence on the free movement of persons area