The EU & ID-cards: prohibition becomes permission

Researched by Denis Cooper:

Article 18 of the present TEC, ie the Treaty establishing the European Community, on pdf page 49 here runs as follows:

1. Every citizen of the Union shall have the right to move and reside freely within the territory of the Member States, subject to the limitations and conditions laid down in this Treaty and by the measures adopted to give it effect.

2. If action by the Community should prove necessary to attain this objective and this Treaty has not provided the necessary powers, the Council may adopt provisions with a view to facilitating the exercise of the rights referred to in paragraph 1. The Council shall act in accordance with the procedure referred to in Article 251.

3. Paragraph 2 shall not apply to provisions on passports, identity cards, residence permits or any other such document or to provisions on social security or social protection.

i.e. the EU has no powers over ID-cards and the like. However, Article 35 to the Treaty of Lisbon, on pdf page 11 here would remove that prohibition:

Article 18 shall be amended as follows ...

(b) paragraph 3 shall be replaced by the following:

For the same purposes as those referred to in paragraph 1 and if the Treaties have not provided the necessary powers, the Council, acting in accordance with a special legislative procedure, may adopt measures concerning social security or social protection. The Council shall act unanimously after consulting the European Parliament.

Thereby putting documentation concerning "social security or social protection" within the ambit of the EU, while removing the present prohibition on EU interference with respect to "passports, identity cards, residence permits or any other such document".

Meanwhile, Article 62(3) to the Treaty of Lisbon (pdf page 29), creates the power for the EU to take legally binding decisions about those other documents such as ID cards:

If action by the Union should prove necessary to facilitate the exercise of the right referred to in Article 17(2)(a), and if the Treaties have not provided the necessary powers, the Council, acting in accordance with a special legislative procedure, may adopt provisions concerning passports, identity cards, residence permits or any other such document. The Council shall act unanimously after consulting the European Parliament.

Denis concludes thusly:

"This is how the EU project proceeds; not in a manly, frank and transparent fashion, but slyly and surreptitiously. With cowardly, sneaky little specimens in back rooms conniving to gradually change the wording of complex treaties that ordinary people don't have the time to read and analyse, mainly because they're trying to earn an honest living, and with fellow travellers then pretending that it's all got nothing whatsoever to do with the EU."

and it's hard to disagree with that!