Free Flow of People Within the European Union
Free Flow of People Within the European Union
One of the main objectives of the founders of the Treaty of Rome signed on 25 March 1957 was to promote the flow of labor force among the member states of the European Economic Community. The free movement of people is one of the Community’s four major freedoms, which has made it a high priority among the Community’s policies. In the beginning, individuals were primarily considered as economic factors, thus the free movement of people had to be ensured so that employees within the Community could reach places where their work was most highly demanded. Although the free movement of people was originally facilitated for purely economic reasons, the principle of free movement was – even in the beginning – more than a matter of regulating economic issues. The founders’ political objective was for the principle of free movement to foster the increasingly tighter relationships between the Member States’ peoples. The free movement of labor force has, however, been common practice within the Community since only as recently 1 January 1969, i.e., only after a transitional period of twelve years did the citizens of the Member States also have the opportunity to move freely. Moreover, under the Community’s law, up to 1972 no economically active group, whatever category they belonged to, other than the labor force had the right to migrate freely. It became obvious at the same time that, in order to ensure free movement, the Member States would have to coordinate other areas as well. Therefore, from 1968, social security coordination and the mutual recognition of diplomas and professional qualifications were gradually commenced in order to promote the enforcement of free movement.
The idea of applying a temporary period also arose upon the accession of new Member States because the European Community stipulated a transitional period for the introduction of the free movement of labor when the southern countries joined the Community. Thus, on the accession of Greece in 1981, as well as of Spain and Portugal in 1985, certain restrictions related to the movement of labor remained in effect for six years. At the same time, experience showed that migration from the region did not significantly increase even after such restrictions had been lifted, i.e., the application of provisional restriction was not really justified.
A summary of the Community’s effective law applicable to the free movement of people follows below. The Community’s primary legislation originally applied to the free movement of the labor force, as well as to the freedom to settle down. While the former governs employees, the latter one is applied to independent entrepreneurs, tradesmen (individual and incorporated firms) and self-employed people. The content of freedom as provided for in the Treaty of Rome essentially concerns the prohibition of any discrimination against any of the Member States’ citizens during the temporary period defined in the Treaty. The Union’s Maastricht Treaty, signed on 7 February 1992 as a result of the further development of that essential right, introduced the institution of Union citizenship (active and passive voting rights at local governments elections and in the European Parliament, the right to turn to an ombudsman, and the opportunity to use any other Member State’s representations in a foreign country), and announced that each and every citizen of the Union has the right to move and to reside freely in the Member States’ territories, under the limitations of the Maastricht Treaty. By making policies on visas, rights to refuge, and the flow of people become parts of the Community’s primary legislation in relation to individuals’ free movement regarding their control at external borders, crime prevention and law enforcement, the amendments to the Treaty of Rome by the Amsterdam Treaty made judicial cooperation in civil issues, as well as the enhancement of the cooperation between Member States’ public administrations also parts of the same legislation.
The Community’s secondary law was also developed gradually, and in the beginning it was restricted mainly to providing a background for employees’ rights to move and settle down. Accordingly, it was mostly the recognition of professional qualifications and guidelines concerning corporate law that were the earliest to develop. Simultaneously, the legal area governing migrants’ social safety also gradually evolved under the provisions of the Treaty of Rome on the coordination of social security systems.
As a partial entitlement in the beginning for the labor force to move freely, the right of residence – which has become quite extensive by now – was formed on the basis of the Community’s primary legislation providing for the formation of a single internal market by 31 December 1992. Today some of the Community’s directives apply not only to the residence rights of pupils, university students, and pensioners but also to those Union citizens entitled to move freely, who have a sufficient financial background to fund their stay.
In accordance with the principle of the free movement of individuals, citizens of the Member States may work jobs or pursue entrepreneurial activities in any place within the Community, enjoying the equal treatment every other citizen of the Member State is due and without being discriminated against because of their citizenship.
Under the primary and secondary law, the Member States may impose restrictions on the right of free movement. The most significant restriction is that the right of free movement is due to the citizens of the Member States only. The restriction whereby employees and self-employed individuals among such citizens may only enjoy this right has apparently been fading away since the early 1990s. However, the Member States are still reluctant to introduce an “overall entitlement” that would be due to everyone. The Treaty of Rome also applies another restriction whereby the principle of free movement does not apply to public services. This exception excludes a decisive majority of public job holders, such as teachers, nurses, local government officials, sailors, researchers, etc., from the scope of free movement. In other words, no equal treatment shall be granted to other Member States’ citizens regarding these jobs. With a significant part of the Community’s employees working in the public sector, it significantly narrows down the circle of employees who enjoy the right of free movement.
The Directive on the movement and residence of foreign citizens provides for another group of exceptions. Under the Directive, the free movement of individuals may be restricted if justified by law and order, public safety or public health. Measures taken based on law and order, public safety or public health cannot serve economic purposes. Decisions regarding specific individuals should be made solely and exclusively based on “the personal conduct of the individual in question”.
Analyzing the statistics, one can establish that the migration of the labor force within the European Union is far from outstanding despite the favorable regulations, i.e., even the recent decades have not witnessed a massive migration of the labor force. Employee mobility has dropped in particular since the economic crisis in the 1970s. The number of migrating employees in 1984, including border zones, dropped 1958 levels, which means that 2 million (5 million including family members) people “migrated” between Member States within the Community in the early 1980s. The latest calculations show that internal migration has been growing evenly over the last fifteen years, the proportion of foreign employees in the European Union’s global labor market rose from 6.1% in 1986 to 6.5-7% in 1996. A survey conducted by EUROSTAT shows that the ratio of foreigners in the European Union, with a population of approximately 380 million, is about 4.5 to 4.8%, which is 16 to 18 million people; but only 35% of them (5 to 6 million people) are citizens of a particular Member State.1
