Last week in Strasbourg the United Kingdom’s Prime Minister, David Cameron, delivered an important speech in which he called for reform of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR).
The UK currently holds the six-month presidency of the Council of Europe. The Council is comprised of government ministers from each of the European Union’s Member States, and plays the principal role in deciding policies in areas where countries have not delegated their powers to the other EU institutions. It cannot propose new legislation, but has the power of setting political guidelines and Cameron clearly intends to use the remaining months of the UK’s presidency to push for changes in the ECtHR.
As we have noted several times in this blog, our Government has faced fierce ongoing criticism from the British media over its immigration policies. Scarcely a week seems to pass without some fresh scandal being announced in the press. The decisions by the ECtHR, and the Human Rights Act itself,
We handle a large number of Indefinite Leave to Remain, or settlement, applications for clients who have spent 5 years legally in the United Kingdom and want to live and work here with no restrictions. A grant of ILR means that the applicant retains their nationality and does not become a British citizen, but he or she will no longer need to apply for visa extensions in order to remain in the UK and continue employment here.
However, we also receive more complicated queries where a marriage or partnership between a British citizen and their non-EEA spouse has dissolved, but the foreign national also wishes to remain in the UK. Do they still have the legal right to remain here, provided they have resided legally in the UK for 5 years, or is that right removed when they are no longer married to the spouse on whom their UK visa was dependent? And what about situations involving an EEA member who has brought a ‘third party’ national (ie, a migrant from a country which is not a
In recent weeks the media has been dominated by reports of the unfolding Eurozone crisis, which has seen the British Foreign Secretary William Hague proclaim "I described the euro as a burning building with no exits and so it has proved for some of the countries in it.”
On Friday, a summit was held to discuss proposed changes to the European Union’s Lisbon Treaty, which were aimed at addressing the Euro crisis. In order for the planned changed to go ahead, all 27 EU members would have needed to vote in favour, including those not in the euro, such as the United Kingdom.
However, The UK Prime Minister effectively vetoed the changes, refusing to agree to them. He has faced a huge backlash from both Labour MPs and Liberal Democrat members of the coalition government. David Cameron delivered a statement to the House of Commons today, which can be viewed here, setting out his reasons for rejecting the changes. Essentially, he argues that he sought certain “safeguards” to protect
