On March 8, 2011 the EU Court of Justice made a landmark ruling in the case of Ruiz Zambrano. The Court awarded the Colombian parents of two Belgian children, living in Belgium, the right to an EU residence permit based on the nationality of the children.

This is remarkable because until now the assumption was that family members of EU citizens were only granted residency when the EU citizen in question had lived in another EU member state than that of their nationality. By granting EU citizens and their families EU rights without them having had the right of free movement within the EU, it would appear that EU citizenship and the rights thereof can be more broadly interpreted. In practice, as an example, this would mean that residing in the Netherlands as part of an EU right would also be allowed when a child in the family is has Dutch citizenship.