FREE MOVEMENT OF PERSONS AND THE LEGAL SECURITY OF DOCUMENTS WITHIN THE EUROPEAN UNION

Abstract

The increase of international and European Union migration has led to increasing attention to the impact of Member States' legislation on the recognition, legal certainty and standardization of procedures for the movement of official documents, as part of the free movement of persons within the European Union. This article responds to European Union's needs by examining the extent to which the various regulations, in particular regulations having direct and immediate application, being long and complex and comprehensively governing some cross-border procedures that underline the recognition of official documents within the European Union. It is a fact that the Union facilitates and accelerates the cross-border application of aspects of the free movement of persons in private international law, encourages the simplification of the requirements for the presentation of certain official documents in EU, while strengthening the security of Union citizens' identity cards and residence documents etc. By using the historical and comparative method, the conclusions drawn from this analysis refer to the need to apply these legislative rules established due to the necessity to ensure legal certainty and predictability at Union level, but also offering to European citizens an attractive option compared to the classic variants of international law, the latter providing at times a more convincing and comprehensive legal certainty.