Judgment_paragraph 53 · Criminal proceedings against A (C-35/20)

53Thus, while it is for the Member States, under Article 4(3) of Directive 2004/38, to issue to their citizens, or to renew, an identity card or passport, the EU legislature, by making the right of a Union citizen to travel to another Member State subject to the condition that he or she must be in possession of such a document, in accordance with Article 4(1) thereof, intended to define a formality connected with freedom of movement within the meaning of recital 7 thereof. As the Advocate General observed, in point 58 of his Opinion, that formality aims to facilitate the exercise of the right to free movement by ensuring that any person benefiting from that right is easily identified as such in the context of a possible verification (see, to that effect, judgments of 21 September 1999, Wijsenbeek, C‑378/97, EU:C:1999:439, paragraph 43, and of 17 February 2005, Oulane, C‑215/03, EU:C:2005:95, paragraphs 21 and 22).