European Union – Freedom of movement. Article 12 of Directive (EC) 2003/109 precluded legislation of a member state which, as interpreted by some of the courts of that member state, did not provide for the application of the requirements of protection against the expulsion of a third-country national who was a long-term resident to all administrative expulsion decisions, regardless of the legal nature of that measure or of the detailed rules governing it. The Court of Justice of the European Union so held in a preliminary ruling in proceedings concerning the expulsion, from Spanish territory, of a third-country national who had been a long-term resident.