Social Agenda 34 - Free movement of EU workers

n°34
08/2013
ISSN 1682-7783
SOCIAL AGENDA
focus on
Free
movement
of EU workers
10
24
European Semester
European year
of citizens 2013
Linking up national
and European politics
Wanted: a genuine
EU labour market
Social Europe
2 / SOCIAL AGENDA / AUGUST 2013
EDITORIAL
© European Union
EU citizens have the right to work in any other EU country and
to move there with their families. This right has been enshrined
in the European treaties since the inception of the European
Economic Community, back in 1957. Yet, still today, 15 % of
EU citizens would not consider working in another Member
State because they feel there are too many obstacles in the
way. At the same time, this figure confirms that there is a
huge potential for the free movement of EU workers. Slowly
but surely, free movement is actually increasing: twice as
many EU citizens now live and work in another EU country
than fifteen years ago. But this only brings us to 3.1 % of the
EU labour force (7.5 million out of a total EU labour force of
241.1 million people).
A recent initiative taken by Spain and Germany, built upon the European Commission initiative
“Your First EURES (European network of public employment services) Job”, shows that there is
an increasing need for, and interest in, intra-EU mobility. Ensuring effective freedom of movement for professionals gives consistence and meaning to EU citizenship. It helps matching skills
with vacancies and it contributes to reducing unemployment. In times of crisis, labour mobility
helps addressing “asymmetric” economic shocks between different parts
of the EU, so that some of the workers in regions severely affected by
unemployment may move more easily to other parts of the EU which
are experiencing skills shortages.
“Putting an end
to nationality-based
discrimination”
The European Commission has recently put forward a law proposal which
would concretely help the workers who want to move, or have already
done so, in several ways. It would ensure that all the key actors - including
State employers, private sector employers and local civil servants - are
actually aware of the principle of non-discrimination on the grounds of nationality and of what it
really means in practice. In each EU country, mobile workers could turn for advice and protection
to specialised experts in Equality or other types of bodies. It would also empower the workers
themselves to seek the support of civil society and social partner organisations when taking legal
action. It would contribute to the creation of a genuine European labour market, alongside the
initiative on enhancing cooperation between Public Employment Services put forward recently
by the Commission, as well as the proposal for modernising EURES.
More awareness, better information and effective implementation of the EU free movement of
workers legislation is good for everybody: for the mobile workers themselves, of course, but also
for the employers and workers of the host country.
Koos Richelle
Director General of the European Commission’s Employment,
Social Affairs and Inclusion department
A magazine providing information on European employment and social policies, Social Agenda is published four times a year in English, French and German by the European Commission’s
Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion.
Editor in chief: Koos Richelle, Director-General, DG Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion – European Commission, B-1049 Brussels.
Subscription is free on request – please fill in the registration form available at: http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=740&langId=en
Notice: Neither the European Commission, nor any person acting on its behalf, may be held responsible for the use to which information contained in this publication may be put,
or for any errors which, despite careful preparation and checking, may appear. • © European Union, 2013
Non-commercial reproduction authorised, subject to acknowledgement of the source.
For any use or reproduction of photos which are not under European Union copyright, permission must be sought directly from the copyright holder(s).
© Cover: iStockphoto
SOCIAL AGENDA / AUGUST 2013 / 3
CONTENTS
2014-20 EU BUDGETARY FRAMEWORK
The European way to 20206
COHESION POLICY
Common indicators needed8
6
EUROPEAN SEMESTER
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Linking up national and European politics10
SOCIAL MEDIA
Social Europe is “trendy”12
The freedom of movement of EU workers14
Empowering mobile workers15
Cross-border commuters17
A passport of rights18
Testing a network of support centres19
Economic conditions are favourable but policies must follow21
12
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SPECIAL FEATURE
EUROPEAN YEAR OF CITIZENS 2013 Wanted: a genuine EU labour market24
OTHER VOICES
Teresa Moitinho, European Commission: People-oriented27
15
27
© European Union
INTERVIEW
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Yves Jorens, tRess: free movement of workers - towards full realisation26
4 / SOCIAL AGENDA / AUGUST 2013
NEWS
IN BRIEF
The European Commission has called on EU countries to
deliver on their commitments to ensure equality and to
do more to improve the economic and social integration
of Europe’s 10 to 12 million Roma. The call follows the
Commission’s progress report released on 26 June on the
implementation of Member States’ national Roma integration strategies. It is accompanied by a proposal for a
Recommendation, setting out a series of specific policy recommendations to help guide Member States to effectively
implement their strategies.
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26 June: Stepping up
Roma integration
Recommended: EU countries need to do better in implementing their
national Roma integration strategies.
20 June: Pension portability agreement
European Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs
and Inclusion László Andor welcomed the agreement
by the EU Council on the Commission’s proposal for a
Directive on improving the portability of supplementary
pension rights. The Council’s endorsement of the proposed
pension portability Directive is an important step towards
ensuring that people can move to work in another Member
State without losing their occupational pension benefits.
People who exercise their right to free movement should
not be penalised. This is important not only for the mobility of individuals, but also for the functioning of a genuine
EU labour market.
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19 June: A call to action on youth unemployment
Top priority: accelerating the implementation of the Youth Guarantee.
The European Commission sent a contribution to the
27-28 June European Council entitled “Working together
for Europe’s young people – a call to action on youth
unemployment”. While most of the means are in Member
States’ hands, the EU level can help make a difference. The
Commission proposed a number of practical and achievable
measures that have the potential for immediate impact. The
priority is to accelerate the implementation of the Youth
Guarantee. The Commission is proposing that EUR 6 billion
of the Youth Employment Initiative should be frontloaded
so that this money is committed in 2014 and 2015 rather
than over the seven year period of the MFF. Member States
need to bring forward their youth employment programmes
in the autumn. In parallel the Commission will develop a
number of EU-level tools to help Member States, such as
the EU Alliance for Apprenticeships, the coalition for digital
employment, EURES and the ‘your first EURES job’ initiative,
and helping firms to recruit young people. All these measures
need to be taken forward in close partnership with the social
partners and relevant stakeholders.
SOCIAL AGENDA / AUGUST 2013 / 5
NEWS IN BRIEF
17 June: More efficient public employment services
Member States’ public employment services have a crucial role to play in helping the 26 million unemployed in
Europe to get a job. This is why the European Commission
has proposed a Decision to help public employment services
maximise their effectiveness through closer cooperation, to
better address the needs of the unemployed and businesses.
Effective public employment services are essential for the
practical implementation by Member States of employment
policies, such as the Youth Guarantee. Public employment
services are also vital in ensuring a better match between
jobseekers with particular skills and employers looking for
these skills.
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A public consultation opened on 31 May to gather contributions from the public on the future EU policy framework
on health and safety at work. Accidents at work are at a
historically low level, and the European Union’s occupational
safety and health standards are a reference for the rest
of the world. Investing in occupational safety pays off in
terms of improved productivity and staff well-being, reduced
absenteeism and staff turnover and greater job satisfaction,
especially during the crisis. All citizens and organisations are
welcome to contribute to this consultation, which will close
on 26 August 2013.
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31 May: Public consultation on health and safety at work
Deadline: the public consultation will close on 26 August.
29 May: First Social Innovation prizes
José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission,
awarded the first Social Innovation prizes for three groundbreaking ideas that seek new ways to create more and
better jobs in Europe. The winning projects aim to reduce
youth employment by sharing jobs among young and older
employees, to extend the reach and quality of small-scale
social care and health services via an app, and to improve
access to the job market for economically deprived people by
making their skills widely visible. The Commission launched
the Social Innovation Competition on the 1 October 2012.
Over 600 proposals were received out of which ten finalists
were selected.
2 May: European Commission meets EU social partners
The Commission met with EU-level social partners, representing trade unions, employers and business organisations, to
discuss the social dimension of the Economic and Monetary
Union (EMU). The visit marks the first time the Commission as
a whole meets with social partners and will allow for a joint
reflection on ideas to further fiscal, financial, economic and
political integration in the EMU, which has an important social
impact. The Commission outlined its vision for the future last
November in the Blueprint for a deep and genuine EMU and
developed its ideas in two Communications published in March.
6 / SOCIAL AGENDA / AUGUST 2013
2014-20
EU BUDGETARY
FRAMEWORK
The European way to
2020
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A recap of the European Commission proposals
(which were being negotiated at the time of writing)
Reaching out: a new Fund for European Aid to the Most Deprived.
Since 7-8 February 2013, when the EU Heads of State and
Governments (European Council) negotiated their position
on the EU’s multiannual financial framework (MFF) for the
2014-2020 budgetary period (see Social Agenda n°33), the
EU Council of Ministers, the European Commission and the
European Parliament have been holding a “trilogue” to agree
on the MFF, which sets expenditure ceilings per year and per
EU policy for the seven years to come.
At the time of writing, the trilogue was still in full swing. It
concerned issues such as: the flexibility of the EU budget
(making it possible to transfer unspent funds in one area
to other areas or to use them in the following years); introducing a mid-term revision clause (pausing half way and
checking whether the political priorities and figures allocated to expenditure ceilings should be revised); whether
the EU would need new resources of its own in order to
decrease the Member States’ national contributions; and
presenting everything that is linked to expenses and revenues of the EU in a single document (including, for example,
information on borrowing and lending operations carried
out by the EU).
The negotiations were all the more complex that they were
linked to the adoption of a number of amending budgets for
2013 as well as to the adoption of the 2014 EU budget.
The EU institutions also had to agree on legislative proposals
for each area covered by the next MFF. In the field of employment, social affairs and inclusion policy, these proposals
concern in particular the European Social Fund, the European
Globalisation Adjustment Fund, the Fund for European Aid to
the Most Deprived and the European Commission’s Employment
and Social Innovation Programme.
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SOCIAL AGENDA / AUGUST 2013 / 7
Boosting: special EU funding for the regions hardest hit by youth unemployment.
What the Commission wanted
In June 2011, the Commission proposed that the European
Social Fund (ESF) allocation should amount to at least
€84 billion to be spent for improving employment opportunities, promoting education and life-long learning and
developing active inclusion policies. The ESF should have a
minimum share of 25 % of the overall EU cohesion policy
funding. Within this minimum share, 20 % should be devoted
to projects promoting social inclusion.
Young people who happen to be neither in education nor in
employment or training (NEETs) would be an investment priority for the ESF, in particular through the recently proposed
Youth Employment Initiative (YEI). The YEI would be open to
all regions with levels of youth unemployment above 25 %
(on the basis of EU figures for 2012). It will complement
other ESF and national actions undertaken for implementing
the EU Youth Guarantee scheme, which aims to ensure that,
within four months of leaving formal education or becoming
unemployed, young people up to the age of 25 receive a good
quality offer for a job, continued education, an apprenticeship or a traineeship.
The new cohesion policy for 2014-20 will focus on fewer
investment priorities than was the case in the past. It will
give priority to implementing Europe’s Growth and Jobs
Agenda, Europe 2020, which was agreed in 2010. Greater
synergy between all the funds will be ensured by the
Commission signing a partnership agreement with each
EU Member State which will cover all cohesion policy issues.
Another novelty is that the operational programmes, which
diagnose the situation and define EU funds for each priority, will be able to draw funding not just from one fund,
as in the past (one fund per operational programme), but,
alternatively, from several of them – i.e. from the ESF but
also from the European Regional Development Fund, the
European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development and the
European Maritime and Fisheries Fund.
The ESF will remain the main EU instrument to support employability, fight poverty and promote inclusion. Following an EU
Court of Justice ruling, the current EU food distribution programme for the most deprived persons expires at the end
of 2013. The Commission therefore proposed to create a Fund
for European Aid to the most deprived (FEAD). It will help those
who suffer from the most severe forms of poverty and are often
too excluded and too far from the labour market to benefit from
the activating labour market measures co-funded by the ESF.
The FEAD will support the Member States’ schemes providing
food and, as far as homeless people and children suffering
from material deprivation are concerned, basic goods such as
clothing and shoes. In addition to material assistance, it will
provide accompanying social inclusion measures.
The MFF also includes the Commission’s own programmes,
such as Progress (to support the development and coordination of EU policy in the areas of employment, social inclusion,
social protection, working conditions, anti-discrimination and
gender equality), EURES (a co-operation network between the
European Commission and the Public Employment Services
of the EU countries plus Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein and
Switzerland, and other partner organisations) and the Progress
Microfinance Facility for employment and social inclusion.
For 2014-2020, the Commission proposed to integrate these
three financial instruments into a single EU programme for
Employment and Social Innovation. It will provide funding at
EU level and support a coherent European approach to promoting employment and social protection, combating social
exclusion and poverty and improving working conditions, in
line with the Europe 2020 strategy for smart, sustainable
and inclusive growth.
More information:
Web page on European Social Fund and other employment
and social policy funding channels: http://ec.europa.eu/social/
main.jsp?langId=en&catId=325
8 / SOCIAL AGENDA / AUGUST 2013
Quest for employment: 15 million people are
supported by the EU every year.
COHE SION
P OLI CY
>>
Common indicators needed
© European Union
Second EU strategic report emphasises need
for better evaluation
Not easy to evaluate: the European Social Fund benefits a huge number of small beneficiaries.
Since 1973, cohesion has been a key EU policy. Its aim is to
reduce regional disparities, boost regional competitiveness
and employment, and encourage cross-border European territorial cooperation.
It also represents a key part of the EU budget. In the 2007-2013
EU multiannual financial framework (MFF), funding for
regional and cohesion policy amounts to €347bn - 35.7 % of
the total EU budget for that period. Knowing that all cohesion
policy programmes are co-financed by the member countries,
this brings the total available funding to almost €700bn.
For the 2007-2013 programming period, the European
Commission was required for the first time to present regular overviews of how the funds concerned are actually
working, based on national reports provided by the member
countries. The first report was published in 2009 and the
second one on 17 April 2013, based on data collected until
the end of 2011.
Those overviews are named “strategic reports”, as they are
designed to provide the EU countries with overall feedback
on the progress achieved so far and guidance on what more
needs to be done to enhance the effectiveness of EU cohesion policy. Indeed, the 2013 report emphasises that cohesion
funding should be spent in a more strategic way and that
the projects funded should be better evaluated. In doing so,
it is anticipating on the more strategic and result-oriented
approach which is being chosen for the 2014-2020 MFF (see
article page 6).
New insights
Collecting data from 27 countries and evaluating it is no
easy task but it is particularly difficult in the case of the
European Social Fund which, contrary to funds going to big
infrastructure projects, directly benefits a huge number of
small beneficiaries (see box). The 2013 strategic report provides important insights on implementation that was not
available before, even if it does not cover the full effects of
the policy as many other indicators cannot be aggregated.
Common indicators is therefore a key issue for the 2014-2020
programing period. The European Commission has proposed
a list of mandatory indicators. Member countries will be able
to add programme-specific indicators in their operational
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SOCIAL AGENDA / AUGUST 2013 / 9
programmes (on the basis of which EU funding is ultimately
allocated).
to member countries and regions to improve the quality of
their reporting.
Indeed, the 2013 strategic report points out that the
2007-2013 programmes have strong mechanisms for tracking the flow and absorption of money, but weaker ones for
setting, monitoring and evaluating objectives. Public debate
on these facts and figures will give an important incentive
Implementation reports for the 27 Member States:
A significant acceleration of results
As far as the European Social Fund (ESF) is concerned,
very large numbers of people are benefiting from
the programmes which are investing in access to
employment, education and training, social inclusion
and administrative capacity building, the 2013 cohesion
policy strategic report shows.
The report documents a significant increase in the
number of people supported in the area of employment,
from around 10 million annually before 2010 to some
15 million since then, as well as a significant acceleration
of results since 2010 in the area of support for small and
medium-sized enterprises (SMEs): almost 400 000 new
jobs were created, half of which in 2010-2011,
including 15 600 research jobs (9 500 since 2010) and
167 000 jobs in SMEs (69 100 since 2010). The largest
number of new jobs reported were in the United Kingdom,
Italy, Germany, Spain, Poland and Hungary, demonstrating
that cohesion policy support has a positive – and, in some
cases, significant- counter-cyclical effect on employment.
From 2007 to the end of 2011, there were 12.5 million
participants in ESF actions to support access to
employment through training or other forms of
assistance. Two thirds of all participants were inactive
or unemployed. As a result, 2.4 million found a job
within six months of completing the intervention.
http://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/how/policy/
strategic_report_en.cfm
15 million participants were under 24 years old and
the figure increased significantly in 2010 and 2011, in
response to the crisis. In Germany, France and Hungary,
young people (under 24) account for 40 % or more of all
participants. 46 % of participants have lower secondary
education at the most. In Germany, Greece and Malta,
they account for over 60 % of all participants but less
than 20 % in Finland, Sweden, SIovenia and Cyprus. In
Cyprus, Estonia and Lithuania and Slovenia, 40 % or
more have tertiary education.
In the area of lifelong learning, the ESF supported
around 5 million young people. 5.5 million participants
had low skills. In the area of social inclusion, so far over
14.5 million final recipients were covered and a broad
range of target groups reached. 18 % of participants
were from groups which are particularly vulnerable on
the labour market. The United Kingdom and Austria
seem to be particularly successful in reaching out to
people with some form of disability. Austria, Cyprus, the
Netherlands and Latvia are successful in using the ESF
to support people from a minority or with a migrant
background. About 700 000 participants, notably civil
servants, have upgraded their skills with ESF support.
Bulgaria, Greece, Hungary and Romania implement a
programme explicitly dedicated to institutional capacity
building. 52 % of ESF participants are women. In
Cyprus, Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia, they amount to
more than 60 %.
10 / SOCIAL AGENDA / AUGUST 2013
Challenging: The cost of long-term care
and pensions challenges the financial
sustainability of EU countries.
E UR OP E AN
S E ME S TER
>>
Linking up national
and European politics
The European Semester process is gathering momentum
stretched to breaking point. Youth and long-term unemployment, as well as poverty (in particular child poverty) are on
the rise. The cost of healthcare and long-term care, as well as
that of pensions, challenges the financial sustainability of the
member countries. The resilience and adjustment capacity of
the labour markets is essential to minimise unemployment and
head towards a jobs-rich recovery.
At the time of writing (mid-June), this process was due to come
to a head at the 27-28 June European Council (heads of state
and governments).
Media coverage of the CSRs proposed by the Commission
shows that national public opinions are becoming increasingly
aware of the European Semester process which, as Commission
President Jose Manuel Barroso explained, “links national politics
with European politics”. This a clear sign that the process is
gathering momentum.
As a result, the country-specific recommendations proposed by
the European Commission on 29 May have a lot to do with youth
employment and social solidarity (see box). Three months after it
proposed a Social Investment Package of measures (see Social
Agenda n°33), the message sent by the Commission through
the CSRs was one of investment in people - by improving the
educational systems so that people have the right skills, ensuring
that public employment services are run efficiently and making
sure that State support reaches out to the most disadvantaged
people, in the most effective way possible.
Integrated agendas
A preventive approach
What is also increasingly clear is that the economic and social
agenda are becoming more and more integrated. As the
economic crisis drags on, the social protection systems are
A preventive rather than a palliative approach to social policy
is therefore recommended. At the same time, demand for
labour needs to be encouraged by a coherent economic and
© Imageglobe
For the third year running, the European Union has been through
a policy coordination process called the European Semester. It
ends up each year in the course of July with the Member States
collectively adopting country-specific recommendations (CSRs) for
23 Member States (all EU countries except those that are under
special financial support programmes) and for the Euro area, before
they start preparing their national budgets, this time for 2014.
Looking ahead: EU recommendations have a lot to do with youth employment and social solidarity.
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SOCIAL AGENDA / AUGUST 2013 / 11
financial policy: differentiated growth-friendly fiscal consolidation, an EU Banking Union so that the banks can lend in
particular to small and medium size companies, a shift of
taxation from labour (especially the lowest paid workers) to
other areas and a clear link between the level of wages and
that of productivity and growth-enhancing structural reforms.
in hand to create the conditions for growth and job creation.
Labour market reforms and more cost-effective social protection systems are required for an integrated and consensual
economic, social and financial approach.
Hence another major message sent by the Commission: there
is no contradiction between budgetary austerity and growth;
structural reforms and restoring the flow of lending, go hand
More information:
72 employment and social-related
recommendations
The country-specific recommendations cover a wide
range of key issues to address unemployment and
the social consequences of the crisis and to attain the
Europe 2020 targets on employment, poverty reduction
and education.
On 29 May, the European Commission proposed the
biggest number ever of country-specific recommendations
(CSRs) in the area of youth. The 12 member countries
with the most serious youth unemployment problems
were advised to put in place the structures to make the
Youth Guarantee, recently adopted by the EU Council
of Ministers (see Social Agenda n°33), a reality as soon
as possible.
It also proposed to send CSRs to 19 Member States to
facilitate school-to-work transitions. Specifically, these
countries should promote special incentives for companies
to hire people, increase the availability of apprenticeships
and work-based learning and reduce excessively high
school drop-out rates and early school leaving.
15 countries should receive CSRs to provide more
effective, targeted support to the long term unemployed
and those furthest away from the labour market. Such
http://ec.europa.eu/europe2020/making-it-happen/
country-specific-recommendations/index_en.htm
active labour market policies should include personalised
job-search assistance to bridge the gap between people
that have particular skills and employers looking for
those skills, and organising training and apprenticeships
adapted to the needs of the individuals concerned.
The current crisis has put more people, especially children,
at risk of poverty. The Commission proposed sending CSRs
to 10 countries to strengthen social safety nets in order to
tackle poverty by enhancing the adequacy, efficiency and
effectiveness of benefits and services.
The Commission also proposed that 5 countries receive
CSRs to improve the integration of the Roma population,
notably by implementing their national Roma integration
strategies which they adopted collectively at EU level (see
Social Agenda n°31).
Against the background of ageing populations, it is vital
to reform health and long-term care. Member States
should improve the cost-effectiveness of their health and
care systems, refocus from institutional to home care
and put more emphasis on prevention and independent
living. These reforms should not only ensure financial
sustainability but also ensure adequate access to services
or, as appropriate, improved coverage. The Commission
proposed that 15 countries should receive CSRs to
this effect.
12 / SOCIAL AGENDA / AUGUST 2013
Friends: the Social Europe Facebook page is
popular with the social partners, civil society,
academics and students.
S OCIAL
MEDIA
Social Europe is
>>
“trendy”
The European Commission’s employment
and social policy platforms are booming
As a policy area, employment, social affairs and inclusion
may not sound particularly attractive to social media fans,
especially in times of crisis. Yet Social Europe, the European
Commission’s Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion
department (DG EMPL) ’s platforms on Facebook, Twitter and
Flickr, are among the most visited and used of all European
Commission social media platforms.
Social Europe was in fact one of the first Commission social
media outlets to get going. It was launched in 2009 on
Facebook and in 2010 on Twitter. The policy area happens
to be very large and provides plenty of opportunities to
run campaigns, such as the one on the European Health
Insurance Card (EHIC) video and mobile phone application
(see page 28), in the field of social security coordination.
Another example is the Youth on the Move campaign, in the
field of free circulation of students and workers. Several
events have been organised in the EU countries, including recently some special debating forums in Greece or
Bulgaria, in the language of the country concerned: the
‘”­glocal” approach!
Social Europe also conveys political messages, for example
when the European Commission adopted a Youth Employment
Package in December 2012 or the Social Investment
Package (SIP) in February 2013. A #YouthEmpl Twitter Chat
was organised whereby Commissioner Andor engaged in a
conversation on youth employment and the launch of the
‘Youth Guarantee’. Within 45 minutes, over 51 questions were
received. This continued to generate more comments and
interaction even after the chat was over.
In the case of SIP, it focused on one of the most concrete
aspects of the Package: the fight against child poverty. Social
© Imageglobe
The first time Social Europe campaigned on EHIC, it launched
quite a hilarious video and asked people to upload their picture on a wall featuring the card in one way or another, during
their summer vacation. Many of the photos received were
not usable but the campaign did generate a lot of interest!
The “glocal” approach
Followers: 51 questions in just a few minutes at #YouthEmpl Twitter Chat with European Commissioner Andor.
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SOCIAL AGENDA / AUGUST 2013 / 13
Europe covered the formal launch of the SIP at a conference
in May 2013 in Leuven, Belgium, live via Twitter.
Social Europe also relays centrally agreed European
Commission messages, as it did for example when the
2012 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the European Union.
When the presidents of the European Council, European
Parliament and European Commission went to Oslo to receive
the prize, people were asked to vote “I agree” or “I disagree”.
Stakeholders ‘like’ Facebook
Experience shows that the Social Europe Facebook page is
particularly popular with the social partners, civil society,
academics and students, although it also reaches out to a
wider audience, which is attracted by the audio-visual element. On the other hand, the Social Europe Twitter account
(@EU_Social) is mainly used by members of the European
Parliament and journalists, who by definition are good at cutting down messages to 140 characters as required by Twitter!
Social Europe also makes extensive use of Flickr. For example, to cover the launch of the 2012 European Year of Active
Ageing and Solidarity between Generations in Copenhagen,
Denmark and the entire Youth on the Move campaign. In doing
so, it provides journalists with fresh, original and already
copyrighted picture sets of albums, to which the Social Europe
Facebook and Twitter accounts are also linked.
On top of maximising the complementarity of the various
social media platforms, Social Europe also benefits from the
popularity of its “base camp”: DG EMPL’s website on Europa,
the EU’s portal. Social Europe links up to specific information
on specific parts of the website corresponding to priority
areas, such as the European Year of Active Ageing last year, or
youth unemployment this year. Social Europe also promotes
the audio-visual material and the publications, including the
one you are reading right now, which are available in the
relevant parts of DG EMPL’s website.
Finally, Social Europe also interacts with other Commission
social media and even with those of social partners and
NGOs. Increased interaction through live tweeting, web chats
and video streaming is more than ever on top of the agenda
to consolidate and further expand what has become a Social
Europe community.
Social Europe Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/socialeurope
The most popular specialised Europa
Facebook page
In November 2012, the Facebook page of the European
Commission’s Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion
department (DG EMPL) was the most popular of
the Commission’s specialised Facebook accounts.
On Twitter it ranked fourth and on Flickr, fifth.
It cross-links with other Facebook platforms such as
Youth on the Move, EURES, Eurofound, the European
Microfinance Network and Inclusion Europe, to name
a few.
At the beginning of July, 43 760 people “liked” SocialEurope-Facebook (and the Social Europe Twitter account
had 13 536 followers) compared to 118 000 who liked
the European Commission’s central Facebook account,
800 000 that of the European Parliament, 42 000 the
EU’s Council’s account… and 1 769 000 the US White
House’s platform! On a world scale, Facebook as a
whole had 1 billion monthly active users altogether in
2012 and 618 million daily active users on average,
82 % of which were outside the United States of
America and Canada.
14 / SOCIAL AGENDA / AUGUST 2013
S PE CIAL
F E AT U R E
The freedom of movement
of workers
EU
Towards a genuine European labour market
In April 2013, the European Commission put forward a directive on measures facilitating the exercise of workers’ rights
as they move within the European single market. This draft
proposal is the starting point for this special feature on the
freedom of movement of European workers within the EU:
a right which exists in legal terms since 1968.
Although the number of workers who make use of this right
has doubled over the last fifteen years, and is set to continue
growing, much still needs to be done to remove the obstacles
they face in practice.
This special feature puts the Commission’s draft directive
into context. It also illustrates concretely what has been done
so far at EU level to tackle some of the obstacles, through
concrete EU-funded multi-national projects.
Support centres
Beyond the special feature, an article on the 2013 EU
Citizenship report, which came out in May, confirms that
obstacles to the freedom of movement of EU workers are
a major concern for European citizens: such obstacles hold
many of them back from the very idea of moving to another
EU country.
With only just one year to go before the next European parliamentary elections, people aspire to a genuine EU labour
market, not just in law but in practice.
More information:
http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?langId=en&catId=457 © Imageglobe
The European Commission is launching a pilot initiative to
experiment the feasibility of a transnational network of support centres for mobile EU workers, including posted workers.
The special feature explains how.
In an interview with Armindo Silva, Director in the European
Commission, it evaluates the importance of free movement of EU workers not just in terms of citizenship and
fundamental rights but also from the point of view of the
present economic and social crisis and of future EU developments, such as a deepening of economic and monetary
union: freedom of movement of workers is a touchstone
of EU-building.
Hope: people aspire to a genuine EU labour market, not just in law but in practice.
© Imageglobe
SOCIAL AGENDA / AUGUST 2013 / 15
Whistleblowers: making the right to free movement of EU workers become reality.
Empowering
mobile workers
How to make existing EU legislation easier to use
Forty-five years ago, the right to free movement of EU
workers throughout the European Union, already enshrined
in the treaty creating the European Economic Community,
was translated into directly applicable EU law (regulation
1612/68, technically amended in 2011 to become regulation 492/11). This was in 1968, when the “common market”
became a customs union.
and different working conditions (pay, career prospects and
grade) compared to the workers of the host country; problems with accessing social benefits and professional qualifications; and experience acquired in other EU countries not
taken into account, or in a different way.
Since then, discrimination on the grounds of nationality of
EU workers or unemployed people seeking a job in another
EU country, and of their families, is simply against the law.
European Commission services are swamped with letters
of complaints, or simply seeking information (8 000 such
letters reach the Europe Direct information service alone
every year). 12 000 people answered a public consultation launched by the Commission last year on the issue of
free movement of workers. 74 % of them feel they are not
informed about what they can do in order to defend their
rights as EU professionals working in an EU country other
than their own. Many of those who managed to reach a
And yet, in the third quarter of 2012, only 3.1 % of the EU
labour force lived in another EU country than their own.
And 15 % would not consider working in another Member
State because they felt there were too many obstacles:
non-access to certain posts, different recruitment conditions
8 000 letters a year
16 / SOCIAL AGENDA / AUGUST 2013
SPECIAL FEATURE
legal expert were advised to file a suit on the grounds of
gender or racial discrimination but never on the grounds of
nationality discrimination.
Not only is free movement of workers a crucial fundamental
right of EU citizens, giving concrete meaning to the whole
enterprise of creating a European Union. It is also particularly
important in times of economic and social crisis, when people
from a country or region particularly hard hit by unemployment may aspire to work in other parts of the European
Union where there happens to be a skills shortage.
Moreover, not only is there a huge potential for professional
mobility within the EU but the percentage of working-age
EU citizens who do move is actually on the rise: although
starting from a very low level, it has doubled over the
last fifteen years and it is set to carry on increasing. In
2009, a Eurobarometer survey showed that around 10 % of
EU citizens have already worked and lived in another country
at some time: 13 % for a period between one and two years
and 38 % for less than a year.
It further protects workers by ensuring that associations,
organisations or other legal entities (non-governmental
organisations, social partners…) may engage in any administrative or judicial procedure on behalf or in support of EU
workers from other countries.
Crucially, the law proposal also seeks to raise awareness
by providing employers, workers and any other interested
parties with easily accessible information. There again, the
member States are free to decide how they want to reach
this aim.
If adopted by the European Parliament and the EU Council
of Ministers, this law will contribute to turning the customs
union of 1968 into a genuine European Union labour market
of the twenty-first century.
More information:
http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=25&langId=en
Awareness raising
Clearly the problem is one of awareness-raising and access
to information. This is why, on 26 April 2013, the European
Commission put forward a proposal for a law facilitating the
concrete application of EU workers’ rights to free movement
and equal treatment as they move within the EU.
Social benefits tourism
In practice, EU Member States would be required first of
all to create national contact points providing information,
assistance and advice so that EU workers but also employers are better informed about EU regulation 492/11. All EU
countries already have equality bodies, 19 of which marginally touch upon discrimination on the grounds of nationality.
Their scope could be expanded at little cost. Otherwise, the
Member States are free to set up or adapt whatever kind of
body they wish, so long as they attain the objectives of the
new law (a directive, i.e. secondary legislation).
Data from EU labour force surveys indicate that
68.1 % of the EU working-age citizens living in
another EU country are in employment and only
9.3 % are jobseekers. And among the mobile EU
citizens who are unemployed, the vast majority
lost their job in their current destination country,
i.e. after moving there.
The proposed law also provides appropriate means of
redress at national level: any EU worker who believes that
he/she has been the victim of discrimination on the grounds
of nationality should be able to make use of administrative
and/or judicial procedures to challenge such discriminatory behaviour.
No EU member State has given the European
Commission any statistical evidence that “social
benefits tourism” exists to any significant extent.
By ensuring that workers and employers are better
informed about their rights to free movement
within the EU, the law proposed by the European
Commission would better protect both the workers
coming from other EU countries and those of
the host countries, from social dumping and the
black economy.
SOCIAL AGENDA / AUGUST 2013 / 17
SPECIAL FEATURE
Cross-border
commuters
Raising awareness of their particular needs
and addressing them
© Association of European Border Regions, AEBR
Cross-border information networks
Anna Winkler, AEBR Projects officer: it is difficult to find information
on complex cases.
From 2011 to 2012, the Association of European Border
Regions (AEBR) ran a project to raise awareness about
legal and administrative information for nationals of
EU countries working in another EU country.
Anna Winkler, AEBR Projects and Finances officer,
describes the project.
The AEBR project focused specifically on cross-border regions.
Due to their peripheral location and differences in legislation,
languages and cultures, the availability of reliable information
for cross-border commuters proves to be particularly challenging.
Although information on standard situations can be obtained
quite easily via brochures and websites, it is difficult to find
information on more complex cases. The aim of the AEBR project
was therefore to promote the exchange of information between
cross-border advisory services, elaborate concrete proposals to
improve the existing advisory services and raise awareness about
the problems and challenges faced by cross-border workers.
Information is crucial for the promotion of labour mobility
in Europe. Personalised advisory services play a key role in
letting migrant workers access complex information. Crossborder information networks alongside the existing personalised advisory services must therefore be maintained and
supported. Without reliable information for European crossborder workers and the exchange of information between
all relevant stakeholders, it is difficult to achieve a real
cross-border labour market.
Committee of the Regions opinion
This summer, twenty years after the creation of the European
internal market, the EU Committee of the Regions, supported
by AEBR, will issue an opinion on the situation of cross-border
workers. We hope that this opinion will help raise awareness
about the obstacles and challenges faced by these workers,
at European and national level.
From the national perspective, cross-border workers make up
for only a small group of workers. National legislation in most
cases does not sufficiently take into account their particular
needs and problems. We expect that the Committee of the
Regions opinion will give rise to new initiatives and actions
at European, national and regional level, promoting mobility
in the European Union.
The AEBR plans also to launch a task-force focusing on crossborder labour markets. It should make it easier to exchange
information and strengthen the network created through
the AEBR project.
More information:
http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?langId=en&catId=89&ne
wsId=1865&furtherNews=yes
18 / SOCIAL AGENDA / AUGUST 2013
SPECIAL FEATURE
A
passport of rights
Improving counselling on social security rights
Municipalities’ key role
© INCA CGIL Belgio asbl
Partners proved particularly interested in our awareness-raising
project. Due to lack of information, EU workers are not fully
aware of their labour and social protection rights. We have been
receiving a great number of queries from citizens. Although we
are conscious that information cannot solve all the problems, it
can create a useful debate on the free movement of workers
within Europe. We concluded that, being the first contact points
for incoming migrant workers, it is up to the municipalities to
provide adequate counselling.
Stefano Tricoli, TESSE project coordinator: consolidating social Europe.
TESSE (Transnational exchanges on social security in
Europe) was a transnational cooperation project set
up in Brussels between February 2011 and November
2012 by INCA CGIL (the National Confederal Assistance
Institute of the CGIL Italian trade union). Its aim was
to improve the quality of the counselling provided to
citizens moving within the EU.
Stefano Tricoli, President of INCA Belgio and coordinator
of the TESSE project, explains.
The TESSE project involved trade unions and social security
institutions from the EU Member States. Thanks to mutual
learning activities and thematic workshops, project partners
were able to discuss the obstacles that still deter citizens from
settling in another EU country. In particular, we availed ourselves of learning tools such as Action Learning. This process
allowed participants to improve their understanding of the
obstacles to the free movement of people through the exchange
of success stories. We relied on focus groups and informal
debates to reach possible solutions to specific practical and
theoretical issues.
TESSE produced useful analytical and policy-oriented outcomes.
The overall learning process was developed through four workshops in Brussels, Berlin, Rome and Paris. They focused on EU
legislation, citizens’ rights and the introduction of the EESSI
system for the electronic exchange of social security information. In this new regulatory framework, we realised that trade
unions must reinvent their role in protecting workers moving
within the EU.
We issued recommendations targeting national and European
institutions, taking into account the best practices collected by
European trade unions. Based on this experience, we produced
the Passport of Rights which symbolises the efforts made to
consolidate a social Europe.
Our project therefore intended to provide its partners with the
necessary tools to promote the coordination of social security
schemes throughout Europe, so as to foster awareness of social
rights when moving within Europe.
More information:
http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?langId=en&catId=457&new
sId=1899&furtherNews=yes
Video “ European commuters,
what about your social security?”:
http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=702&langId=en&vid
eosId=2625&vl=en&furtherVideos=yes
SOCIAL AGENDA / AUGUST 2013 / 19
SPECIAL FEATURE
Testing a network
of centres
support
© Imageglobe
The European Commission is launching a pilot initiative
Posted workers too: The pilot initiative will also cater for workers posted by their companies to another country for a limited duration.
Even when national law is formally respected, the lack of
administrative and legal information and advice at the mobile
intra-EU workers’ disposal puts them at a disadvantage with
their national counterparts. They are all the more likely to suffer
from subtle forms of discrimination on the grounds of nationality and may experience difficulties in integrating the host
country’s labour market.
Empowering these workers by creating new information and
advice structures, or enhancing existing ones, is one of the
key proposals of the directive put forward by the European
Commission on 26 April 2013 to better enforce EU legislation
on equal treatment and equal opportunities for EU workers
moving within the single market (see p.15).
To this end, the European Commission, supported by the
European Parliament, intends to set out a number of pilot
experiences to assess the feasibility of a transnational network of information centres. The beneficiaries of this call will
be able to exchange information and experience, as well as
identify best practices in the field of legal and administrative support to intra-EU mobile workers. The pilot action will
evaluate the possibility of establishing an EU-wide network
in the future.
Equality bodies
For the most part, the transnational network of information
centres could be composed of Equality bodies established under
previous EU legislation. These bodies already exist in all EU
countries. They act on a national level to tackle discrimination
in a broad sense and, in 19 countries, they are already familiar
with discrimination on the grounds of nationality, even though
it is not their main field of intervention. As a result, rather than
duplicating their tasks, the pilot action will help the equality
bodies address specific forms of discrimination against EU
mobile workers.
The pilot initiative will also take care of “posted” workers (who
are posted by their companies to another EU country for a
limited period of time). Posted workers account for a large part
of overall intra-EU migration and are likely to endure discriminatory treatments in the host labour market. They are already
covered by a Commission initiative fostering administrative
20 / SOCIAL AGENDA / AUGUST 2013
SPECIAL FEATURE
After the initial phase of implementation, the selected beneficiaries will produce a report assessing the results of the
preliminary pilot actions and disseminate their achievements.
They will also hold a conference which will be an opportunity
for stakeholders to share the lessons learned and evaluate
possible further actions.
Once the selected beneficiaries of the pilot action will have
implemented concrete networking practices, it will be possible
for the Commission to assess the feasibility of establishing an
EU-wide network. This hopefully will coincide with the transposition of the directive proposed in April 2013 by the European
Commission in all the EU Member States.
The many faces
of nationality discrimination
Helmut, an Austrian teacher with 15 years of
work experience in Austria was hired by a public
school in Italy. However, his work experience was
not taken into account for determining his salary.
He was put on the lowest pay scale. According
to EU law on free movement of EU workers,
migrant workers’ previous periods of comparable
employment acquired in other Member States must
be taken into account by public sector employers for
the purpose of access to posts and for determining
working conditions in the same way as working
periods acquired in the host Member State’s system.
The directive proposed by the European Commission
in April 2013 to improve the enforcement of EU
legislation on the free movement of EU workers
within the single European market, would allow
Helmut to benefit from new enhanced information
requirements imposed on EU Member States.
And if he went to court to assert his right to pay,
commensurate with his experience, he could be
assisted by the new equality bodies required by the
proposed directive.
Tino is an Italian national who plays senior hockey
on skates in France. He resides in France and
holds a working contract with a French hockey on
skates club. In June 2012, the French Roller Sports
Federation adopted a new rule which stipulates
that only three foreign players can take part in each
official match. Tino is concerned that he will lose his
job because of this new rule. Although the French
Roller Sports Federation is strictly not a government
body, the settled case-law of the Court of Justice
makes clear that Article 45 of the EU treaty can
be relied upon in these circumstances to outlaw
discrimination on grounds of nationality. Tino would
be able to benefit from Article 5 of the proposed
Directive as it would require Member States to set up
equality bodies to provide support to migrant workers
to enforce their rights.
Joanne, a UK national working in Finland,
complained that she was unable to get her fixedterm contract converted into an open-ended contract
on the grounds that she did not speak Finnish.
Her employer was nonetheless happy to offer her
another fixed-term contract. This form of indirect
discrimination in relation to working conditions is
contrary to Article 7(1) of Regulation 492/2011 on
the free movement of EU workers. Article 4 of the
proposed Directive would ensure, for example, that
Joanne’s trade union could take action to assist her
to enforce her rights under the Regulation.
© European Union
cooperation between Member States but the new pilot action
will also safeguard their rights from a specifically “anti-discrimination” point of view.
A single labour market? The lack of information and advice puts mobile
workers at a disadvantage with their national counterparts.
SOCIAL AGENDA / AUGUST 2013 / 21
SPECIAL FEATURE
Economic conditions are
favourable
but policies
must follow
Armindo Silva is Director for employment and social legislation,
as well as social dialogue, in the European Commission.
© European Union
Yet it is more than ever a sensitive issue…
Armindo Silva: Free movement of workers is a right but also a smart policy.
The free movement of EU workers within the EU is as
old as the European Union…
Yes, it is a fundamental right that is enshrined in the EU Treaty
and in the EU Charter of fundamental rights and there is legislation that upholds the exercise of that right. Despite that,
only 0.25 % of workers move between EU Member States each
year, as opposed to 2.5 % between the states that make up the
United States of America. There are endogenous reasons for
this, such as the language barrier, cultural differences, family
links and housing costs. But there are also many exogenous
reasons upon which we can act, and have been doing so consistently, such as administrative burdens, the lack of information, discrimination… State and private employers must respect
European law, provide effective freedom of movement and
abolish any measure that implies direct or indirect discrimination against EU citizens who want to work in another EU country.
Indeed, since 2008 when the present crisis started, some
stakeholders and political leaders have chosen the easy way
of putting the blame on “foreigners” for the difficult labour
market situation. The European Commission has consistently
denounced those attempts and upheld the fact that free movement is not just a right but also a smart policy: It allows those
Member States and regions with much unemployment to temporarily mitigate its effects, while at the same time labour
force movements can address shortages of manpower in those
regions of the EU that are doing better. So economically, it
makes sense. We have evidence that proves that EU countries
can reap economic benefits from opening up their borders to
workers of new Member States. We can also produce evidence
showing that those countries that had to remove temporary
restrictions by the end of 2012 to workers from the Member
States that joined the Union in 2004, should not fear a sudden “invasion of foreign workers” because, in fact, this has not
happened so far and will not happen in the future.
Some governments talk about “foreigners” or “migrants”
whereas in fact we are talking about EU citizens…
Yes, public opinions hardly distinguish between workers coming
from other EU Member States and those coming from non-EU
countries… and some groups tend to put the blame on foreigners wherever they come from! However, non-EU immigrants far
outweigh in numbers workers originated in other EU countries.
And, in legislative terms, there is a huge difference because
EU workers are protected by the legally enforceable principles
of non-discrimination and equality. For this reason, national
authorities are not allowed to impose any restrictions to the
free movement of EU workers except in very specific circumstances, for instance until the end of 2013 for Romanian and
Bulgarian workers and beyond that, for workers from new
Member State Croatia.
22 / SOCIAL AGENDA / AUGUST 2013
SPECIAL FEATURE
EU workers are meant to be able to move freely from
one Member State to another as if the EU was a
genuine labour market?
© Imageglobe
Well, a genuine EU labour market is still a dream, with not
even 4 % of the EU population living and working in another
EU country. But there is a huge potential. One in five EU citizens
envisage working in another country. Economically speaking,
there is today, with the crisis and its very unequal impact across
EU countries, an even bigger case than ever for free movement
of workers. This is confirmed by recent data, such as those
published in the latest Quarterly Review of the EU Employment
and Social Situation, showing an increase in mobility inten­
tions and emigration rates especially in those countries more
severely affected by the crisis (Southern Europe, Ireland and
the Baltic countries). But the crisis also makes it more urgent
than ever to provide policy support to workforce mobility, so
that it contributes to better functioning labour markets. The
answer is certainly not to create new obstacles to the free
movement of workers! That is why the Commission has very
clearly stated that temporary restrictions to Bulgarian and
Romanian workers should be totally abolished by the end of
this year. At the same time, labour migration is not a panacea:
We still need growth-inductive and employment-creating policies and, where necessary, financial stability policies. In some
regions, the sudden outflow of skilled workers may have seri­
ous long-term consequences for endogenous growth. We are
not saying that people living in regions going through difficult
times should move out, no! What we are saying is that it is a
right and if they wish to do so, they should be able to move
and work freely in any other EU country.
Ripe: economically speaking, there is a bigger case than ever
for free movement of workers.
What about young workers, are you not encouraging
them to move?
There may be additional difficulties for young people looking for
their first job and this explains why those who are looking for a
first job outside their own country are still a relative minority.
Therefore we are ready to support them through special measures, such as the ‘Your first EURES Job’ initiative, which helps
young people to find jobs in other Member States by providing
financial support for language courses and other training needs,
travel expenses and for integration programmes. In terms of
education policy, there are clear benefits in allowing students to
acquire another language, to learn technical subjects in a different environment and establish networks with students from
other countries. This accounts for the success of the Erasmus
programme for students, which we now want to extend to other
categories of young people, such as apprentices.
There is talk of deepening the Economic and Monetary
Union (EMU)...
There are reasons to believe that if there were more labour
mobility within Europe, the EMU would better absorb asymmetric shocks between depressed and well-off regions of the Union.
This would reduce the need for socially costly policies such as
wage cuts. Economists by and large consider that one of the
reasons why monetary union in the United States works well
is not only because they have a federal fiscal policy but also
because they have a high rate of worker mobility. In the EU, we
have neither. Our labour mobility potential is largely untapped.
So those who plead in favour of a stronger and more stable
EMU should also be in favour of greater labour mobility. This
is not just an economic issue, though. It entails putting in place
policies which facilitate the integration of the workers who
move from one country to another, and that of their families:
more information, better assistance… Which is why we have
proposed a directive aimed at better enforcing the rights of
EU migrant workers (see page 15). We have also established
a network of public employment services, EURES, and have
recently proposed a series of measures aimed at enhancing
its effectiveness. And of course we have the social security
coordination mechanisms that enable people to move across
borders without losing their rights to pensions or healthcare.
We can only expect labour mobility to increase and therefore
provide better objective conditions for the functioning of EMU.
There is also talk of a new treaty…
The freedom of movement of workers is a touchstone of the
European Union. The moment people see that they can no
longer move freely within the EU, the very concept of Europe
SOCIAL AGENDA / AUGUST 2013 / 23
© Imageglobe
SPECIAL FEATURE
Asymmetric shocks: More labour mobility would help the Economic and Monetary Union absorb such shocks.
will fall. If people have to show their passports again and cannot
work in other Member States because new obstacles have been
created just when the objective conditions are favourable to an
increase in labour mobility, then what’s the point? In political
and symbolic terms, any retreat from the freedom of movement of workers would be disastrous for the European ideal.
6.6 million EU citizens worked
in another EU country in 2012 In 2012, 15.2 million foreign citizens worked in the
EU-27, accounting for 7 % of total employment.
Among these foreign citizens, 6.6 million were citizens
of another EU Member State and 8.6 million were
citizens of a country outside the EU. In the EU, the
employment rate for citizens of another EU Member
State (67.7 %) was slightly higher than for nationals
(64.6 %) and significantly higher than for citizens of
a country outside the EU (53.7 %). The unemployment
rate for citizens of another EU Member State
(12.5 %) was higher than for nationals (9.8 %), but
significantly lower than for citizens of a country
outside the EU (21.3 %). This information comes from
a publication issued by Eurostat, the statistical office
of the European Union, based on the 2012 results of
the European Labour Force Survey.
Moving intention:
Danes 51 %, Italians 4 %
Denmark is the only EU country where a majority
(51 %) envisages working abroad at some time in
the future, according to a Eurobarometer survey
published in June 2010. It is followed by Estonia
(38 %), Sweden (37 %), Latvia (36 %) and Lithuania
and Finland (both 35 %). At the other end of the
spectrum, only 4 % of Italians and 8 % of Austrians
and Greeks said they could see themselves working in
another country in the future.
Moving intentions are strongly linked to the perceived
chances of finding a job abroad. Overall, 27 % of
Europeans who feel that the chance of finding a
job is better abroad than in their own country have
moving intentions, compared to 13 % who feel their
chances abroad are the same or worse than in their
own country.
Eurobarometer survey:
http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/archives/
eb_special_339_320_en.htm#337
24 / SOCIAL AGENDA / AUGUST 2013
EUROPEAN YEAR
OF CITIZENS 2013 genuine
Wanted: a
EU labour market
Employment-related action on top of EU Citizenship agenda
A new push to reinforce EU citizens’ rights was given by the
European Commission on 8 May, when it adopted the 2013 EU
Citizenship Report. It sets out concrete ways to help Europeans
make better use of their EU rights - from looking for a job in
another EU country to ensuring stronger participation in the
democratic life of the EU.
longer than the current mandatory three months, when actively
looking for a job in another EU country. It also announces the
development of a quality framework for traineeships that will
set out the main features of high quality traineeships which
will protect the trainees’ rights and help them make the most
of their working experience (see Social Agenda n°32).
This Report is a key output of the European Year of Citizens
2013 (see Social Agenda n°33). It takes stock of the progress
achieved since the first report came out in 2010. It is also the
European Commission’s answer to the concerns expressed by
EU citizens when the public at large was consulted in 2012, as
well as through various Eurobarometer surveys, at civil society
events, in other EU institutions and in Citizens’ Dialogues with
European commissioners.
Legal action
The 2013 Report announces twelve new initiatives covering six areas in which citizens’ rights may be strengthened.
Significantly, the first key area focuses on removing obstacles
for workers, students and trainees in the EU (see pp.14-23), in
particular by looking into the possibility for jobseekers to receive
their unemployment benefits from their home country for
In 2011, the Commission also took Austria to court because
of a national rule granting reduced fares on public transport
only to students whose parents were also in receipt of Austrian
family allowances. In its judgment of 4 October 2012, the Court
upheld the principle that EU students studying elsewhere in the
EU have the same right to some benefits as local students.
© European Union
Removing obstacles
Between 1 January 2011 and 31 March 2013, the European
Commission took action to enforce the principle of non-discrimination on the grounds of nationality. The Commission contested
national provisions of Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Greece
and Luxemburg reserving access to the notary profession to
nationals of these countries. In its judgments of 24 May 2011, the
EU Court of Justice agreed that such provisions were discriminatory on grounds of nationality and thus in breach of the EU Treaty.
Top of the agenda: removing obstacles for intra-EU mobile workers, students and trainees was the first key area identified.
© Imageglobe
SOCIAL AGENDA / AUGUST 2013 / 25
EU-wide protection: an EU disability card would be mutually recognised
throughout the European Union.
And in 2012, the Commission took action on problems encountered by non-Maltese EU citizens residing in Malta in accessing
reduced water and electricity tariffs under the same conditions
as those available to Maltese citizens.
which are taking place in all EU countries between European
commissioners and citizens of all walks of life. These dialogues
will carry on well into 2014, in the run-up to the 2014 European
Parliament elections.
Citizens’ dialogues
Published in all official EU languages, the 2013 EU Citizenship
Report serves as a reference document for the Citizens’ Dialogues
Six key areas for action
In addition to removing obstacles for workers,
students and trainees in the EU, as described in the
article, the 2013 EU Citizenship Report announces actions
in five other areas:
• Cutting red tape in the EU countries by removing
obstacles linked to the use of identity and residence
documents in the EU, including through optional
uniform European documents. The Commission
will also take steps to facilitate the recognition of
roadworthiness certificates for cars across EU borders;
• Protecting the more vulnerable in the EU, by
developing an EU disability card which would be
mutually recognised across the EU, so that the
80 million disabled would be given equal access within
the EU to certain specific benefits (e.g. access to
transport, tourism, culture and leisure); and by proposing
a set of laws to further strengthen citizens’ procedural
rights, especially those of children and vulnerable adults,
when they are suspected or accused of a crime;
• Eliminating barriers to shopping in the EU by
improving rules to settle cross-border disputes over
small claims when buying products online or in another
EU country and by working on an online tool that makes
More information:
http://europa.eu/citizens-2013/en/home
the purchase of digital products more transparent and
that allows citizens to compare deals across borders;
• Promoting the availability of targeted and accessible
information about the EU by making e-training tools
available to local administrations and providing citizenfriendly information on the Europa website about who to
turn to when their rights have been violated;
• Strengthening citizens’ participation in the
democratic process by working on ways to enable EU
citizens who have moved to another EU country to keep
their right to vote in national elections in their country
of origin and by publishing a handbook to better inform
citizens about their EU rights.
Looking for work in another EU country
Of the 12 000 respondents to an online public
consultation on EU citizenship carried out by the
European Commission in 2012, 69 % considered that
they should receive unemployment benefits for at least
six months when looking for a job in another EU country.
One in four respondents encountered problems when
shopping online across EU borders. 76 % were not sure
what they could do if their EU rights were not respected.
26 / SOCIAL AGENDA / AUGUST 2013
OTHER
VOICES
Free movement of workers
A process towards full realisation
day, migrant workers are confronted with problems and even
discrimination when they cross the border. The European citizen
is not really a homo migrans; he is more of the stay-at-home
type. Only a limited, although slightly growing, number of people
go and work in another state.
Social dumping
© trESS
Furthermore, in spite of all these EU instruments protecting
migrant workers’ rights, not only can we not but notice that
these workers often encounter discriminatory practices, but also
the idea of free movement is often negatively perceived in the
press. Regardless the validity of the reasons for this perception,
the phenomena of social dumping and social and medical tourism endanger the European idea of free movement. If no action
is undertaken in these areas, the European saga itself might
be questioned.
Yves Jorens: the very idea of free movement is often negatively perceived
in the press.
A famous Flemish poet once wrote: “Between dream and reality
there are laws, and practical objections”. Unfortunately, even half
a century after the start of the European Union, this statement
is still valid.
From the very beginning, more than 55 years ago, the migrant
worker has occupied an important place in the European architecture. Labour migration, free movement of workers and safeguarding the rights of these workers, have always been considered
as pillars upon which Europe was built. European legislation
focused on protecting these migrant workers from the outset. A
European instrument especially for migrant workers was adopted,
Regulation 1612/68 (now modified by Regulation 492/2011),
which aimed at safeguarding the rights of these workers.
Notwithstanding the legal instruments, the migrant worker still
runs into problems of integration and adaptation to social life.
We notice that there is a distinction between the rights European
citizens and workers can rely on in theory, and daily reality. Every
In this important field of migrant workers’ rights, the European
Commission, aware of this friction and danger, has adopted
a new instrument that should solve the burning issues. It will
facilitate the exercise of rights conferred on workers in the context of the freedom of movement for workers, and enforce the
principle of equal treatment of mobile workers. It focuses on two
aspects: improved information for the persons concerned and
their employers, e.g. through national contact points; and setting-up control mechanisms, either inspection services or social
partners, and even NGOs to protect the persons concerned and
to make sure that the rights that workers were given 50 years
ago are indeed applied and put into practice.
Better information and enforcement are becoming the key words
of action at EU level! This instrument comes at the right moment
and should be applauded. There is a growing necessity to better
comply with the significant provisions the EU has enacted. A new
legal instrument will allow these workers and the European citizens
to make better use of their fundamental rights and freedoms. This
is an important message, not only in times of economic crisis,
but also in the context of the European year of citizens 2013. As
Frenchman Lacordaire stated: “Between the strong and the weak,
it is freedom that oppresses and the law that frees”.
Yves Jorens
Professor of European social law, Ghent University
Project director, trESS, Belgium.
SOCIAL AGENDA / AUGUST 2013 / 27
© European Union
Teresa Moitinho: Enjoying life requires being well both at work and at home.
Health and safety at work is one area where the EU
has the most impact on citizens!
Yes, we are having an impact on the daily life of workers. Since
the EU started legislating on health and safety at work, the
number of workplace accidents has gone down by millions, and
deaths by thousands. And we are not only dealing with workers
but also with their families, as the impact of occupational accidents or diseases on workers’ relatives is huge, not to mention
the costs for companies - and for society at large which bears
the largest part. It is satisfying and enriching as it requires
bringing together lawyers, doctors, engineers, chemical experts,
economists … in a multidisciplinary approach. You are constantly
faced with new issues requiring innovative approaches.
At present, those who are lucky enough to have a job
are under tremendous pressure and anxious about
their professional future…
Indeed, we are paying particular attention to psychosocial risks,
which are increasing. The Senior Labour Inspectors Committee
has just carried out a European enforcement and information
campaign on psychosocial risks in most Member States. It gave
rise to a common European inspection toolkit.13500 inspections were carried out, plus a number of informative activities.
As a result, the number of workplaces which include psychosocial risks in their risk assessment has increased. The European
social partners have signed agreements on stress and on violence at work and we are running several projects in this area,
e.g. a study on mental health at work. At the same time, we
are careful not to impose unnecessary burdens on business,
especially small and medium-size enterprises, as specified in
the EU treaty! Studies clearly show that investing in occupational Health and Safety measures gives a competitive edge
and improves business performance. We are now engaged in
INTERVIEW
Teresa Moitinho is head of the
European Commission Health,
Safety and Hygiene at Work
service since 16 April
People-oriented
a major evaluation exercise of 25 EU occupational health and
safety directives, checking if they are fit for purpose in terms
of relevance, research and new scientific knowledge.
You are a lawyer and you come from Portugal, a
country that is particularly suffering from the crisis.
My legal background helps me understand and design EU legislation but because of the multidisciplinary nature of the health
and safety field, team work and working with colleagues with
other backgrounds, is crucial. And, yes – I would say unfortunately – as a Portuguese, I am particularly sensitive to the
effects of the crisis on people. Members of my family and
friends have lost their jobs or seen their wages hugely reduced.
Young people have major difficulties in finding a first job. But
I admire the way they keep calm and carry on hoping for better days…
Team work is very important for you?
Well, I am very people-oriented! Enjoying life requires being
well both at work and at home and keeping a balance between
the two sides of life. You need to have fun and take pleasure
in whatever you do. You therefore need motivation and feel
that what you are doing is important, no matter what you are
doing. All roles are important and, in any case, in our area, we
cannot deliver alone. So, in my view, we are a team and I try
to motivate and empower people as much as I can. I am firmly
convinced that a motivated and empowered team delivers high
quality results and makes it easier to achieve objectives better.
More information:
http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=151&langId=en
KE-AF-13-034-EN-C
Travelling in Europe*?
Check out the
European Health Insurance Card app!
With your European Health Insurance Card you can access stateprovided healthcare if you fall ill or have an accident during your stay
abroad. Show your card to a doctor or at the hospital and you will
receive the necessary treatment under the same conditions as people
insured in that country.
Cards are issued free by your national
health insurance provider.
How does it work? Download:
“European Health Insurance Card” app
for your smartphone:
http://ehic.europa.eu
*EU countries plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland
Useful websites
The website of Commissioner Andor: http://ec.europa.eu/commission_2010-2014/andor/index_en.htm
The home page of the Commission’s Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion: http://ec.europa.eu/social/
The website of the European Social Fund: http://ec.europa.eu/esf
To download or to order these publications, please go to http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=738&langId=en
To subscribe to the ‘Social Agenda’ magazine or to other publications of DG Employment,
Social Affairs and Inclusion, please fill in the registration form available at: http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=740&langId=en