Talk:Freedom of movement for workers in the European Union

Bulgaria and Romania

There are question marks in their boxes, not because it is not sure that they will join in 2007, but because they have not yet voiced their official position - if they will follow the "reciprocal" path of Hungary, etc., or will open their domestic markets regardless of the situation in the other states. Alinor 18:03, 12 February 2006 (UTC)

update [1]: "No other new member state has so far taken a similar step as Budapest has towards future Balkan job seekers, with Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania having all stated that they would open their labour markets.

Of the "old" EU countries Sweden and Finland will also put no restrictions in place while Spain, Greece, the UK, Ireland, Germany, France, Austria, the Netherlands and Denmark announced they would introduce quotas or other work-permit systems." Alinor 12:58, 23 December 2006 (UTC)

Update

This article needs to be updated to reflect Romania and Bulgaria's accession, and the various policies adopted towards those countries' nationals. This BBC article would be a good starting point, but the table is a bit complex for my editing skills. Cordless Larry 14:16, 3 March 2007 (UTC)

I colored all of 2006 in green. I colored everything with a question mark behind it in yellow, because we need to find out more about those countries. I saw your article and it was helpful in some ways. It would be nice if the BBC would realize that the EU has added some new members since 2004 and provide the same information for those countries. Thanks, (Eddie 00:26, 14 April 2007 (UTC))

No, 2006 should not be colored green - read the agenda describing the coloring below the table - green is for situations with no "transitional period after accession", yellow - for period of 2 years (2004->2006, 2007->2009), orange - for period of 2+3 years (2004->2009, 2007->2012), red - for period of 2+3+2 years (2004->2011, 2007->2014). 91.92.176.188 14:55, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

Wouldn't it be more useful to show citizens of which countries can work in which countries as of today? I mean it is a good idea to indicate whether or not there was a transitition period, but the focus should be on what the title suggests: freedom of movement for workers. And still if we color all 2006 in green, the year (2006 in this case) will remain there which will show when the transition ended. We could also include a simple list of dates when each country joined the EU so that all confusion will be avoided. What do you think? (Eddie 21:38, 4 May 2007 (UTC))

Slovenia

This needs to be updated, as Slovenia cancelled its reciprocal measures against member states that have introduced limitations a while ago. edolen1 18:29, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

I believe you but could you also provide a source for that? Also, we need some additional sources for our table because the BBC one is getting outdated and it only gives the info for half of the countries. Thanks, (Eddie 21:40, 4 May 2007 (UTC))

Here we go [2] edolen1 23:25, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

Is it possible for somebody to check and correct the article for spelling mistakes and errors in grammar? It seems to be very badly written.

December 2007 Update

Second Phase for countries joined in 2004

As required by the Accession Treaty, the Commission drafted a report on the first phase of the transitional arrangements. This was submitted to the Council on 8 February 2006.

Following the Council's review of the Commission's report, EU-15 Member States had until 30 April 2006 to notify the Commission as to their intentions for the second phase.

Currently, ten of the EU-15 Member States have opened their labour markets completely: the United Kingdom, Ireland and Sweden had already opened their labour markets during the first phase. They were followed by Spain, Finland, Greece and Portugal as of 1 May 2006 and, as of 27 July 2006, by Italy. The Netherlands lifted all restrictions from 1 May 2007 and Luxembourg from 1 November 2007. The United Kingdom continues its mandatory registration scheme, and in Finland employment must subsequently be registered for monitoring purposes.

Most of the EU-15 Member States that have maintained restrictions have simplified their procedures or have reduced restrictions in some sectors/professions (Belgium, France, Denmark and – as of 1 November 2007 – Germany). The Royal decree adopted in Belgium for the second phase of the transitional arrangements specifically provides that the restrictions could be lifted before the formal end of the second phase if certain conditions (notably in the form of enforcement measures) are met.

Germany and Austria also maintain national measures in relation to the cross-border provision of services.

Finally, Hungary still applies reciprocal measures. Slovenia ceased to apply reciprocity on 25 May 2006 and Poland on 17 January 2007

None of the EU-8 Member States have thus far resorted to the safeguard procedure, which would mean that EC law on free moment of workers continues to apply among the EU-8 Member States.

First Phase for countries joined in 2007

During the first phase, ten EU-25 Member States (Czech Republic, Estonia, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovenia, Slovakia, Finland and Sweden) have liberalised access of Bulgarian and Romanian workers to their labour markets under national law. In Finland, Cyprus and Slovenia, employment must subsequently be registered for monitoring purposes.

The remaining EU-25 Member States have maintained work permit systems, albeit sometimes with modifications and simplified procedures:

For instance, Denmark issues work permits for work of at least 30 hours/week and that is governed by a collective labour agreement or complies with normal standards for the sector/profession. Where employers have prior approval, workers may start work upon registration of employment with the Immigration Service without first obtaining a work permit. Malta grants work permits for positions that require qualified and/or experienced workers and for those occupations for which there is a shortage of workers. In Greece, a work permit will be issued if an employer cannot fill the vacant post with another EU citizen.

France, Hungary, Italy, Luxembourg and Belgium have maintained the work permit requirement: France applies a simplified procedure for 61 occupations, and Hungary for 245 occupations, where a work permit is issued without considering the job situation or without a labour market review. Luxembourg has introduced simplified procedures for work in agriculture, viticulture, the hotel and catering sector and for people with specific qualifications for which there is a need in the financial sector. Belgium has introduced an accelerated procedure of issuing work permit within 5 days for jobs in professions for which there is a labour shortage.

Italy does not require a work permit for employment in certain sectors (agriculture, hotel and tourism, domestic work, care services, construction, engineering, managerial and highly skilled work, seasonal work).

In the United Kingdom, the employer must apply for a work permit (except for certain categories of employment) and the worker must apply for an "Accession worker card". Low-skilled workers are restricted to existing quota schemes in the agricultural and food processing sectors, skilled workers can work if they qualify for a work permit, or under the Highly Skilled Migrant Programme. In the Netherlands, a work permit will be issued whenever there are no workers available in the Netherlands or other EU Member States and the employer concerned can offer proper working conditions and accommodation. Temporary exemptions may be granted for sectors in which there is a labour shortage. Spain, Portugal and Ireland also require work permits: in Spain, the issuing of a work permit is directly linked to obtaining a job offer and approval of an application by the employer.

In addition to maintaining a work permit requirement, Austria and Germany also apply restrictions on the posting of workers in certain sectors.

Bulgaria and Romania have decided not to restrict access to their labour markets for EU nationals from those EU-25 Member States which apply restrictions for Bulgarian and Romanian workers.

Source: http://ec.europa.eu/employment_social/free_movement/enlargement_en.htm Cheers, (74.134.124.3 (talk) 21:15, 16 December 2007 (UTC))

January 2009 Update

Third Phase for countries that joined in 2004

It is currently unclear what is the status of countries that joined in 2004 with respect to Belgium.

Second Phase for countries joined in 2007

It is currently unclear what is the status of Romanian and Bulgarian workers with respect to the following countries: France, Italy, Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein. Ciprian.Enache (talk) 06:41, 2 January 2009 (UTC)

There were no countries that joined in 2008. Presumably you mean 2007? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Tom Foolery1 (talk • contribs) 10:53, 8 May 2009 (UTC)

Renaming of this article

The name of the article should take into account that it refers specifically to the EU labour mobility. 203.92.129.93 (talk) 18:54, 15 December 2008 (UTC)

Wrong data

The data in the table "Establishment of rights of nationals of each member state to work in each member state" are wrong for countries that joined E.U. in 2004. Most of the old countries did not allow the workers from the 2004 to work on their territory (e.g. in case of Czechia, I believe there were only 4 exceptions, including Britain, Ireland, and Sweden). Most of the old countries, phased-out these restrictions, but Germany and Austria plans to use the maximum possible period. It would be probably better to replace the years in the table for these countries by '?' before the correct years are filled in. --Jirka6 (talk) 19:52, 8 March 2009 (UTC)

This was my mistake, I looked at it as if the table was transposed. So the cell for, say, Czechia and Germany was for Germans working in Czechia, not the other way round. Is there some way to make this more obvious??--Jirka6 (talk) 14:35, 8 May 2009 (UTC)

The data regarding Bulgaria & Romania's entitlement to work in Italy appears wrong, or possibly it's just the key that is wrong. If the entitlement it effective as of 2010 the key should be 2+1+0.

MARKETS OPENED FOR WORKERS FROM EU-8 in Switzerland TODAY!!!!

http://www.eubusiness.com/news-eu/employment-regulate.9oe —Preceding unsigned comment added by Rejedef (talk • contribs) 02:20, 1 May 2011 (UTC)

Croatia

What about Croatia? It's about to enter EU in less then 3 months, so I guess it should be added to this article soon. Is there any official information regarding free movement for Croatian workers? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Merkhet (talk • contribs) 07:01, 7 April 2013 (UTC)

UK will use transitional periods. [3], Germany and Austria have a joint declaration in the Accession Treaty, which states that these countries will use sectorial based transitional periods. Switzerland will negotate on it with the EU. Highlikely Switzerland will use transitional periods. I do not have more info currently.

--Juhan 18:06, 22 April 2013 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Juhan (talk • contribs)

OK, most of the information about restriction for Croatian citizens has been published (still missing the 4 non-EU countries), but I'm wondering if we should add a third colour (and a footnote) for Italy and Germany, because their restrictions include numerous exceptions (see citation for Italy). Merkhet (talk) 18:42, 3 July 2013 (UTC)

Table is too wide

The table is more than twice the width of the regular page. I propose several small changes:

1. In the row for Switzerland, change 2007/2014 to 2007, and 2011/2014 to 2011. The return of restrictions was temporary, so I don't think that it needs to be explicit in the table. It can be left only in the notes.

2. Move all references and notes from the years to the country name.

3. Delete the parentheses in future years (2015 and 2018).

These changes would make the table just slightly wider than the regular page. I also propose:

4. Decrease the bold format in "European Union members" and "Other EEA members". The table applies bold to the first row automatically, so applying bold again makes the text too wide.

5. Increase the text size of the vertical country names to 14px, the same as the horizontal names.

6. Delete the letter J in the file names of the vertical text. The are being redirected to newer file names without the J.

If no one disagrees, I'll make the changes. Heitordp (talk) 03:47, 16 February 2015 (UTC)

I feel the table is way past its usefulness, since the only EU country with some restrictions is Croatia (and in a couple of months it is possible only UK will keep these restrictions). But let's say it contains some historic information might be useful/interesting. I would keep the parenthesis because we still don't know wether these will be extended or not. Liechtenstein has the same restrictions (quotas) for all EEA members, so that information can fit in a single sentence. Switzerland is a special case, but it is not a member of EEA. Table is really not a good media to explain the current situation on the EU-Switzerland topic. I propose a new chapter "Switzerland". This way, you could remove Switzerland (and perhaps Liechtenstein as well) from the table. Merkhet (talk) 21:14, 16 February 2015 (UTC)

Thanks for your comment. I think it's useful to keep the table even after the restritions on Croatia expire, for historic information and also because other countries are in the process of joining the EU and may have similar initial restrictions. I agree to keep the parentheses in future years because they are not certain yet. I also agree to explain the situation in Liechtenstein and Switzerland in another chapter, but I think it's still useful to keep them in the table for comparison, with different colors and notes as they are now. I'll go ahead and make these changes, if someone disagrees I can change something back. Heitordp (talk) 02:46, 18 February 2015 (UTC)

Croatia information is incorrect for Germany

Please note that Croatian nationals need permission to work in Germany. Can this be updated (sorry the table is too complicated for me!)

Source: https://ec.europa.eu/eures/main.jsp?acro=free&lang=en&countryId=DE&fromCountryId=HR&accessing=0&content=1&restrictions=1&step=2

Thanks, Peter — Preceding unsigned comment added by 109.231.221.77 (talk) 12:20, 6 August 2015 (UTC)

No, they don't: [4] Merkhet (talk) 07:11, 7 August 2015 (UTC)

UK Ireland

the UK Ireland square is incorrect. The Irish have had the right to work in Great Britain since before partition, and as far as the right to work is concerned there has never been a border between southerner and northern Ireland. -- PBS (talk) 08:26, 29 March 2017 (UTC)

References

This article, in particular the table, really needs references that confirm all the dates. Several of the years that were previously stated were apparently wrong. The only reference that was given was the primary source of a treaty text, which had obviously been wronly interpreted. This is the problem with original research. We need secondary sources that actually confirm the correctness of the table. The one/ones that made it might have some? Thanks, --Glentamara (talk) 12:21, 3 August 2019 (UTC)

Brexit

Someone please update the matrix for what happens after brexit. Thanks. 69.165.208.6 (talk) 03:31, 26 January 2020 (UTC)

In accordance with the Withdrawal agreement between the European Union and the United Kingdom nothing will happen after brexit, until 31 December 2020 at the earliest. --Glentamara (talk) 09:24, 26 January 2020 (UTC)

Should the UK now be removed from the Matrix? Steven a91 (talk) 01:23, 2 January 2021 (UTC)