JUSTICE/FREE MOVEMENT : COURT SPELLS OUT CONDITIONS FOR DEPORTING AN EU CITIZEN.

• Position: European Union Court of Justice

A European citizen residing in an EU state other than his state of origin may be deported for committing a "particularly serious crime," even if the person has lived for more than ten years in the state. This is the gist of a judgement handed down by the EU Court of Justice, on 22 May, in Case C-348/09 concerning an Italian national convicted for raping a minor in Germany.

European citizens' right to move and reside freely in the EU (2004 directive) is limited by violations of public policy, public security or public health. But the host member state may deport a European citizen who has completed a continuous period of residence of five years "only on serious grounds of public policy or public security". After ten years, a deportation order may only be issued "on imperative grounds of public security".

In this case, it is the risk of a repeated infringement that poses a problem. Mr I has lived in Germany since 1987. He is single and has no children. He has never earned a school-leaving certificate or professional qualifications and has worked in Germany only occasionally. In 2006, the regional court of Cologne sentenced him to a term of imprisonment of seven years and six months for sexual assault, sexual coercion and rape of a young girl, who was eight years old at the time the offences began. The acts took place between 1990 and 2001. Mr I will have completed his sentence in July 2013.

In 2008, the German authorities determined that Mr I had lost the right of entry and residence under German law, on grounds relating in particular to the serious nature of his crime and the risk of re-offending, and ordered him to leave Germany, failing which he would be...