Got an answer. Here it is:
Dear Citizen,
Thank you for your enquiry to Your Europe Advice which relates to your freedom of movement within the EU.
From your enquiry we understand that Portugal has issued a notice that prior authorisation is requested before international and EU flights are landing on certain Portugal airports. The notice has been issued on May 30rd and is valid until further notice, thus not restricted to a certain period of time.
According to Article 25 et seq. of Regulation (EC) No. 2016/399 temporary border controls may – as you are probably aware of – reintroduced in case of a serious threat to public policy or internal security, however only for a certain period of time. In such circumstances the reasons for the restriction of the free movement must be notified to all other member states (Article 26), such as all relevant data detailing the events that constitute a serious threat to its public policy or internal security; the scope of the proposed reintroduction, specifying at which part or parts of the internal borders border control is to be reintroduced, the names of the authorised crossing-points, the date and duration of the planned reintroduction, and, where appropriate, the measures to be taken by the other Member States.
We agree that a general introduction of an obligation to notify flights from other EU member states to Portugal without giving any reasons or criteria as foreseen in Article 26 of the Regulation quoted above might constitute an unjustified restriction to your right to free movement within the EU. However, the measure is not discriminatory because it applies equally to all citizens on intra-EU flights and is not restricted to persons who are nationals of a certain member state. Article 7 of the Regulation quoted above prohibits discrimination in terms of border controls on grounds of sex, racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation, but not on grounds of the means of transport that is used.
Please note that in order to challenge the notice, you would have to request landing permit on one of the airports included in the notice without prior authorisation and then file an appeal against the refusal based on Article 14 of the Regulation.
Regulation (EC) 2016/399 is available on http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=celex%3A32016R0399.
Yours sincerely
Rwy20 wrote:
I think this is not an issue concerning the internal market, and your enquiry will thus go to the wrong commissioner. This is an issue about Article 45 of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights.
For the record, I started looking how introduce a complaint for when a country was not respecting my citizens right (of free movement) and ended at that page.
Must no be that wrong as I got an answer.
jfw wrote:
Must no be that wrong as I got an answer.
Yes, I’m astounded by how well informed of a reply you got, and how quickly. It’s still pretty useless since they told you to go fight it out on your own. Not very practical in another country, in a language you don’t speak, and it could take years until you get it from there to a European court of justice. Could prove to be an expensive endeavor as well.
Reminds me of this old joke:
An engineer and a physicist are in a hot-air balloon.
After a few hours they lose track of where they are and descend to get directions.
They yell to a jogger, “Hey, can you tell us where we’re at?”
After a few moments the jogger responds, “You’re in a hot-air balloon.”
The engineer says, “You must be a mathematician.”
The jogger, shocked, responds, “yeah, how did you know I was a mathematician?”
“Because, it took you far too long to come up with your answer, it was 100% correct, and it was completely useless.”
Rwy20 wrote:
Yes, I’m astounded by how well informed of a reply you got, and how quickly.
Not informed enough, I’m afraid. It is unlikely that ATC will “refuse a landing permit”, as it is not their job. Instead you will have a problem with the police after landing as you have broken Portuguese law.
You send an email to [email protected], per the notam, and they send you an excel form which is basically a GenDec. The form is allegedly on their website, but I could not find it. You also have to provide your Reg, a/w and insurance certs. Don’t return the form in excel format – mine (and apparently others) was rejected by their system as “corrupt” which wasted a couple of days. Send it in pdf and ANAC will send you the permit. They were very helpful, but it took 3 days to sort it out.
Sounds like more or less the same procedure as for Albania or Macedonia…
Aviathor wrote:
Sounds like more or less the same procedure as for Albania or Macedonia…
Which are neither in Schengen nor in EU 
It looks like in order to get the EU authorities to act, one needs to be refused entry, and the requirement for this stupid paper procedure in itself is not actionable…
Which are neither in Schengen nor in EU
Which was exactly my point. 
It looks like in order to get the EU authorities to act, one needs to be refused entry, and the requirement for this stupid paper procedure in itself is not actionable…
Perhaps the problem was that the complaint was made under the wrong provisions?
I don’t believe that this is contrary to the EU rules on the free movement of people. Both Ireland and the UK have passport controls for EU citizens and are in the EU.
Rather it would seem that the complaint should be made by the non-compliance with the Schengen agreement (non-routine immigration checks for EU citizens) , and not non-compliance with EU rules of free movement of people.
I’ve no idea if the same office handles such complaints. But clarifying the complaint and who to make it to might be helpful.
