What does Free Movement mean in Theory and Practice in an Enlarged EU?

Sergio Carrera’s intervention dealt with the Hague Programme on JHA and the extent to which the transitional arrangement providing restrictions to the free movement of workers are pertinent in an enlarging EU. Carrera asserted that it is difficult to reconcile the restrictions to the freedom of movement in the EU with the very notion of European citizenship. This variable geometry in the enlarged Europe is provoking differentiation among European citizens. Translating this concern into practice, Carrera showed that countries like Ireland, Sweden and the United Kingdom, who have not applied the transitional periods, have not been flooded by massive waves of job seekers coming from Eastern Europe.

Carrera then highlighted that most of EU member states want to preserve their prerogatives regarding the liberalisation of movement as this is inextricably related to identity, statehood, perceptions of otherness and sovereignty.

However, Carrera pointed out that the transitional periods are not an innovation but that they have been applied in other enlargement rounds; for instance, the accession of Spain and Portugal supposed transitional periods for these countries, also as far as the freedom of movement was concern. Nevertheless, in Carrera’s opinion the current situation differs with that of 1986 as the European Citizenship did not exist yet and, moreover, the Spanish and Portuguese experience of 1986 as well as the current situation in those EU member states that are not applying the transitional periods proves that these measures may not be useful.

He concluded by saying that the transitional periods applied to workers coming from the new EU Member States should also be abolished in conformity with the right of equal treatment and non-discrimination on grounds of nationality, as enshrined by the EC legal framework and the proactive case law of the ECJ.

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