Removing the barriers to working abroad

Date: 22/02/1996

ANYONE who has tried to exercise their right to work in another EU member state knows only too well just how difficult it can be.

Numerous obstacles are still placed in the way of EU citizens who want to offer their services in a member state other than their own, almost 40 years after Union governments pledged to break down the barriers to the free movement of workers in the Treaty of Rome.

An in-depth study by European Voice this week highlights the problems faced by people in all walks of life, from hairdressers and dieticians to lawyers and doctors, who want to deploy their skills in another EU country.

Responsibility for the difficulties they encounter lies firmly with the EU governments. The European Commission has done its best to crack down on those member states who, despite signing up to agreements in Brussels on the mutual recognition of qualifications, persistently refuse to put those agreements into practice at home.

But in many cases, only the threat of legal action in the European Court of Justice has persuaded recalcitrant governments to fall into line - and in some, even that is not enough.

A report published by the Commission this week points out that both Belgium and Greece have not yet fully implemented a directive agreed in 1989 on the mutual recognition of diplomas, despite past condemnation from the Court for their failure to do so.

The numerous hurdles which have to be jumped by individuals who want to exercise their right to free movement are highlighted by the battle currently being waged by foreign university lecturers in Italy for an end to the discriminatory system which denies them the right to the same pay and status as their Italian counterparts.

Add to this the failure of Social Affairs Commissioner Pádraig Flynn to persuade his fellow Commissioners to back his plan for an EU directive which would allow workers to move their supplementary pensions across EU borders, and the picture looks even bleaker.

Flynn argued that the lack of EU laws in this area was a key factor in deterring people from exercising their right to free movement. But his proposal was been referred to the newly-created high-level panel of experts set up under the chairmanship of former French Minister and MEP Simone Veil, amid warnings from Commission President Jacques Santer that it might interfere with domestic legislation, and opposition from German Commissioners Martin Bangemann and Monika Wulf-Mathies to anything which might affect Germany's complex pension laws.

It is unusual for the Commission to shy away from action simply on the grounds that it might force some member states to change aspects of their national laws - by that token, many of the directives which paved the way for the internal market would not be on the statute books today.

All these problems highlight the size of the task facing Madame Veil's panel as its work gets under way.

Progress may have been made, but tougher action is needed to ensure that people can exercise their right to live and work anywhere in the EU without facing the sort of problems which have deterred many from doing so in the past.

If nothing is done, ordinary members of the public might well conclude that while the internal market may be good for business, it means little for the man or woman in the street. And who could blame them?