Court gives backing to foreign spouses of EU citizens

Non-EU nationals married to EU citizens are entitled to live in their spouse's country, the European Union's highest court ruled on Friday (25 July).

The case concerned four couples living in Ireland who appealed a decision by the Irish government to deport them because their spouses - the husband in each case - was not an EU citizen and had never lived lawfully in another EU member state.

Under Irish law a spouse from outside the European Union must have lived in another member s...