Book launch alert! We are proud to announce the publication of “20 Years of the Family Reunification Directive: Central Themes, Problem Issues and Implementation in Selected Member States.” This volume is the result of a gathering of experts at the Centre for Migration Law at Radboud University, to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the EU Family Reunification Directive (FRD). It examines the FRD from global, EU and national perspectives, alongside case studies in Belgium, Germany, Greece, the Netherlands and Spain.
Why is the Family Reunification Directive important? The right to family life constitutes a fundamental right with extensive protections in various international law instruments, but the FRD was the first EU instrument to link this to the right to family reunification. Authors explain main elements of the FRD, its personal scope, its conditions and procedural rules. The volume particularly focuses on rules for family reunification of refugees or international beneficiaries and their family members, and offers specific recommendations on measures to safeguard this right.
Since the commemorative conference on the FRD’s 20th anniversary and this resulting publication, the state of play in the case country states and in Europe generally has changed, with the right to reunification under siege—making this book even more salient. In particular, beneficiaries of subsidiary protection have faced severe restrictions in their right to family reunification across several Member States, including in Belgium and Germany, given a restrictive turn towards asylum in migration. On the one hand, this demonstrates the gap that the FDR leaves with excluding this group; on the other, it demonstrates the strength of the Directive for those included in the scope.
Bearing this in mind, below is a chapter-by-chapter quick overview of what is in store for the reader, as well as any updates on what has changed since publication:
- Tineke Strik provides an overview of the history and implementation of the FRD, and a recommendation that EU legislators remedy inconsistencies to bring beneficiaries of subsidiary protection under the scope of the FRD (without opening it up for review).
- Kees Groenendijk examines the relationship between the FRD and non-discrimination both in its drafting and final form, in light of Articles 8 and 14 of the ECHR. He concludes it remains undecided whether differences based on educational qualifications, economic contribution and nationality or ethnicity of the third-country national sponsor violate prohibition of discrimination—nothing has changed on that front!
- Vera Keller of the UNHCR Regional Bureau for Europe then outlines the UNHCR’s concerns with the implementation of the FRD in the EU to date, explaining issues that affect the well-being of asylum-seekers and refugees—not much has changed in that regard, either.
- Also at the international level, Charlotte Labrosse of the European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE) explains why ECRE finds that minimums set by the FRD are too low if considering the needs of beneficiaries of international protection—this still holds in 2025.
- Elena Kagiou outlines the various obstacles refugees face in realizing the right to family reunification in Greece, particularly related to documentation in the process.
- Anne Walter then explains how German implementation of the FRD to date has included several gaps that CJEU jurisprudence has addressed, with implementation falling short regarding language requirements (before entry), subsidiary protection and family reunification, and minors and reunification with beneficiaries of international protection.
- Diana Marín Consarnau proceeds with the case of Spain, where the regulatory framework is compatible with the FRD, and the balance of the FRD’s implementation in Spain is positive, with, issues with implementation in certain cases. In the meantime, regulatory context has changed, amended by a royal decree entering into force May 2025, affecting both the family members of beneficiaries and requirements for family reunification.
- In the Belgian case, Ellen Desmet outlines the ways in which the Belgian legal framework on family reunification with TCNs can be complicated and sometimes inaccessible. Recently, the landscape has become complicated for those who do not fall under the FRD ,like benefiacies of subsidiary protection.
- Mark Klaassen, Gerrie Lodder and Corrien Ullersma overview the complicated history of FRD implementation in the Netherlands, including lack of implementation of the FRD’s horizontal provisions, and how a shift in the political has meant further restricting the right to family reunification for beneficiaries of subsidiary protection and limiting the scope of eligible family members of refugees to the strict minimum.