21.2.2009

Official Journal of the European Union

C 44/15

(Case C-337/07)

(EEC-Turkey Association Agreement - Article 7, first paragraph of Decision No 1/80 of the Association Council - Right of residence of a child of a Turkish worker - Worker duly registered as belonging to the labour force - Involuntary unemployment - Applicability of that agreement to Turkish refugees - Conditions governing the loss of acquired rights)

(2009/C 44/24)

Language of the case: German

Referring court

Parties to the main proceedings

Applicant: Ibrahim Altun

Defendant: Stadt Böblingen

Re:

Reference for a preliminary ruling — Verwaltungsgericht Stuttgart — Interpretation of the first indent of Article 7 of Decision No 1/80 of the EEC-Turkey Association Council — Right to stay of a Turkish national who has entered national territory as a minor for the purpose of family reunion — Criminal conviction — Effect on the right to stay — Applicability to Turkish refugees — Asylum granted to the father on the basis of false statements — Withdrawal of grant of asylum as a condition for refusal of the derived right to stay — Derived right conditional on lawful registration as belonging to the labour force of a Member State for a period of three years during which the father lives together in a household with the minor

Operative part of the judgment

1.The first indent of the first paragraph of Article 7 of Decision No 1/80 of 19 September 1980 on the development of the Association set up by the Agreement establishing an Association between the European Economic Community and Turkey is to be interpreted as meaning that the child of a Turkish worker may enjoy rights arising by virtue of that provision where, during the three-year period when the child was co-habiting with that worker, the latter was working for two and a half years before being unemployed for the following six months.

2.The fact that a Turkish worker has obtained the right of residence in a Member State and, accordingly, the right of access to the labour market of that State as a political refugee does not prevent a member of his family from enjoying the rights arising under the first paragraph of Article 7 of Decision No 1/80.

3.The first paragraph of Article 7 of Decision No 1/80 is to be interpreted as meaning that when a Turkish worker has obtained the status of political refugee on the basis of false statements, the rights that a member of his family derives from that provision cannot be called into to question if the latter, on the date on which the residence permit issued to that worker is withdrawn, fulfils the conditions laid down therein.

(1) OJ C 269, 10.11.2007.