The relationship between free movement of persons and fundamental rights

This chapter explores the intersection between barriers to movement and fundamental rights which leads to the application, or not, of the Charter of Fundamental Rights (Charter) to acts of the Member States. Here, there are different strands of case law pulling in different directions, and this contribution identifies different approaches in the Court’s jurisprudence: in some categories of cases, fundamental rights are more readily applied (eg in cases relating to changes of names, extradition cases, Ruiz Zambrano cases, and deprivation of citizenship cases) whereas in other cases, including those concerning barriers to movement and access to welfare, fundamental rights are only relevant in some instances; this sometimes also depends on the way in which the preliminary question has been formulated. Furthermore, there seems to be a link between the fundamental right deemed to be relevant and the rationale of free movement in that particular case: not just any Charter right may be relied upon in any given case, but only those Charter rights which have the effect of reinforcing or facilitating the right to move.