Free movement of people after EU enlargement : threat or necessity?

Résumé du document

Free movement of individuals is one of the fundamental freedoms guaranteed by Community law and includes the right to live and work in another Member State. The right to free movement within the Community does not only address the workers, as it relates to other categories of the public like students, pensioners and EU citizens. The mobility of labor has given rise to a debate among the present and the future EU members. The enlargement process was completed on the 1st of May 2004. The main aim of this paper is an attempt to answer the following questions: What are the restrictions concerning labour mobility that "old" EU members imposed on the "new" ones? Are the restrictions are justified? Who will benefit the most during the first year of accession as far as employment policy is concerned?

Extraits

[...] The influx of the immigrants from the CECs will be a solution or even a necessity for "old" EU members. According to the estimations of the European Commision the average age in the EU will increase from 38.3 years in 1995 to 41.8 years in 2015. In many countries like United Kingdom, Spain, Italy, France, Portugal, Greece, Sweden and Germany the precentage of people at working age is already decreasing. With regard to the demographic trends in Europe, Germany is an interesting case for two reasons: its economy is the biggest in European Union and has the largest population. [...]

[...] But in order to have in 2050 the age ratio the same as in 1995, Germans would have to receive the enormous figure of 3.4 million net immigrants per year, which would lead to a population of 299 million in the year 2050. "According to Fuchs and Thon (1999) who focused on the labour market situation, the German working age population is most likely going to decline after 2010. Table Estimated development of working age population in Germany Notes: Non italic figures are estimated. * from 2000 onwards. Source: Kunz 2002, p.10. [...]

[...] So the first question is whether the same may happen in the case of approaching enlargement? Well, in the case of Greece, Portugal and Spain economic and labour market differences were moderate compared to their neighbouring EU regions. But in the case of the Central European countries (CECs) the differences are bigger and some of them which have low living standards share common borders with highly industrialised countries. I will take an example of Germany and Austria in which the negative attitude towards freedom of movement is most widespreaded. [...]

[...] But expected emigration of doctors may ause headaches not only among Polish authorities but also Lithuanian ones. Nowadays one third of their doctors declares willingness of working abroad right after accession to the EU. Most of them, similar to Poles, choose Great Britain, Germany and Scandinavian countries. Doctors are only one example of specialists who may find a job in the EU. There are many other professions for which demand in present Memeber States will be rising during the following years. [...]

[...] The importance of "social", subjective factors was also proven in the history of Polish emigration. The highest rates of emigrants were observed in the 1980's when the communism system was falling apart, but the visa policy was still very strict . The willingness of moving abroad among Poles decreased in the early 1990's when the liberalisation of the movement of persons was introduced.(Zienkowski, 2001) Another argument against unjustified fears of countries of the EU is history. And I am not refering only to previous enlargements and the predictions of big waves of Spanish emirant storming EU's labour markets. [...]