What rights do we have under EU law in France?

Can anyone who knows, tell us what rights we have as Citizens from another EU country.


I have been told I do not have any rights in France as I am not French and was not born here. I was under the illusion that we have the same rights as French people except that we can not vote for the President of France.


Are these rights specifically referred to in a specific agreement ( article numbers would be great to know thanks ) - For instance the Schengen Agreement gave certain rights, is there one for general rights and expectations, particularly in Civil and Criminal affairs?


Thanks


Ted

Not true - though people tell you this. You have to find the relevant "textes" with the law spelt out and show it to people. Back in 1998 when I was applying to go in for the CAPES competitive exam to be a secondary school teacher, the rule was you had to be "un ressortissant de l'UE" i.e. a citizen of the European Union. You had also to have the same or equivalent educational qualifications as French candidates.

Aye Andrew but the Loch Ness monster is a long way down.

So Damien’s not a RoyList then David - which is his prerogative of course!

As my dear old,Gran used to tell me she had Blue Blood in her veins, perhaps that’s why I’m a Royalist or else it’s the meds!

Given current discussions I thought my little addition to this one wouldn’t go amiss.

Hi Ted

Other than the Armed forces, high office in politics and certain elections you've got nothing to worry about and should have the same rights as anyone else. Other than these exemples (which are easy to live without), can you tell me what the person who told you this was specifically refering to?

Tobias

you can't vote in the départemental elections - I tried, had my card etc. but it's no longer the case, just les municipales and les européennes ;-)

Like you, I can't be bothered for the moment with naturalisation (printed the forms off years ago but lost the will to get all the paperwork together...! My kids have their cartes d'identité as they're french nationals from birth - fortunately they were extremely quick, a mater of a few weeks in each case :-)

As a resident and tax payer you have the right to vote in your local and Departmental elections so long as you are registered with your Marie. You cannot in National elections unless you have French citizenship, as for work it depends who you know and what class you are as to whether your application is accepted. Anyone that believes France's declaration of Egalité means Equality is labouring under a misapprehension of the term. That said I love living and working here, my 2 youngest children applied for naturalisation when they were 18 years old and it took about 2 years. All certificates have to be officially translated which costs about 40 to 50 euros plus a flat fee paid in stamps of 55 euros each, everything has to be sent by registered post ( yet more expense ) and eventually you arrive at your ceremony and pledge allegiance to France. Beware your new French birth certificate has a shelf life of 6 months, as the kids found out when they went to the local Marie to apply for their Carte Identité. Because they were both at University one in Rouen and the other at Caen they decided to wait until they had the same domicile as me so the paper work was easier to provide EDF facture, a letter on my honneur stating they lived with me plus my passport ( they made a copy of it ) photographs and original British and new French birth certificates. Having made a "Dossier" they were told the French birth certificates were out of date and would have to apply online for new copies..... only in France is there an inbuilt system to perpetuate administrative paperwork continuously so everyone gets to justify their job. My children are 22 and 24 years old respectively and are still waiting to receive their Carte d'identité as for me I'm not even going to bother. :)

Sorry for being a bit thick Peter but what does that mean?

Our good friends live in Lytham St Ann's, I know your area well. The lake district is beautiful we took our Caravan there often at weekends, when the children were young.

I was born in Lancaster and then lived by Morecambe Bay, half an hour from Windermere.
You might have noticed but there are quite a lot of people who take their holidays there because it is so beautiful.

Maureen, my sister is up north and loves it, I'm from the south and I can't change that, having said that, if somewhere is "home" for me back in the UK, it's more Devon than Bucks/Oxfordshire, that's just where I was born and grew up. Sarah, the people are more than friendly but there again perhaps it was because my ex-OH was devonian so I had a lot of family and relations there + work collegues + cycling mates... It's all about accents (which I love) just the same as it is here, anyone from outside the south west sticks out a mile, especially people from the north - it works both ways, friends (french) from the aveyron still have problems with people in the vienne understanding them and vice versa which means that even though they've been there for over a decade, they still don't feel at home and aren't treated as such either...!

I agree with you, my siblings still live in Manchester my daughter in law is from Yorkshire, my son in law from Glasgow and lots of my friends and family are still in Manchester.

Great people, good fun to be with.

Well I was born in Leeds, have lived in the Midlands and in London -the midlands not so friendly, London only friendly in the East End where most of the people making the effort were from Northern England anyway! and until i moved here, I lived in Devon for 3 years which I found to be a lovely place but the people were not so friendly personally. So I vote for North of Derby as the best! :-P

I agree with you Jane, I am from Manchester, now living in Provence. Northern people are warm and friendly.

What is wrong with up North? you have never lived, Northern people are the salt of the earth. I sometimes think that people South of Birmingham live sad lives!

Pretty good, Peter, it used to be further west - I spent over a decade in Devon and my ex is devonian - but I've been in France long enough now to resort to my accent roots born in Bucks grew up on the Bucks/Oxfordshire border. western home counties rather than Estuary English though...! ;-)

Nothing to do with nationality Sarah. Some jobs ie certain translation posts insist on french-speaking as a native or 'mother-tongue' as opposed to only 'schoolboy' french for example.

The one thing I have found is that most french employers believe in jobs for the french first and the rest after instead of the the best person for the job etc.

You would have thought so John but last year while jobhunting, I noticed an fair proportion of jobs stated 'Must be native French speaker or French as first language'. Although that does of course not rule out people from other French speaking countries, it does appear to be a roundabout way of saying 'this job is open to French people only' in my eyes!!

I don't think we need anyone who contravenes SFN Netiquette .

This applies to any member who is rude to other members or indeed admins, whether publicly or via PM.

There have been various comments on this thread that are not at all in the spirit of SFN.

I would suggest / ask that anyone who has made any personal comments to think very carefully before they make any similar comments in the future. Thank you.

Well Damian,

contrary to your view, yes we do need Dave, but on the other hand, you........? Not so sure about that judging on the contributions so far.