Quote:
Originally Posted by backofbeyond
On a personal note we've put our money where our mouth(s) is/ are. We have property in France and family in two other EU countries. None of that would have been impossible pre EU but the rights that come as EU citizens have made it considerably easier.
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Of course it would. Back before the EU in the EEC days the free movement of people already existed. And, in any event, you can buy a house in several countries worldwide (most of them) without having any affiliation to it.
Many people seem to think that the freedom of movement came with Schengen just like many people seem to think that the right to live in any European country came with the Schengen agreement but that is far from true. The Schengen Agreement the sole thing that it did was the abolishing of border controls between the EU countries. Nothing else. And, in any event, the Schengen Agreement is not a birth child of the European Union. It was signed in 1985 being a birth child of the European Economic Comunity. Further, its rules, regulations and systems were not part of the EU acquis until 1999. Only then, with the Treaty of Amsterdam, the provisions of the Schengen Agreement (1985) and of the Schengen Convention (1990) were included in European law. Until then it was an agreement between states.
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