Without frontiers but safe” “

“There still exist legal, administrative and linguistic barriers to professional mobility, compounded by the lack of knowledge of the available information and assistance”, says VLADIMÍR ŠPIDLA , European Commissioner for employment, social affairs and equal opportunities. The Commissioner is in the process of defining the objectives and programmes for 2006, proclaimed by the European Commission the “European Year of Professional Mobility”. THE ADVANTAGES OF PROFESSIONAL AND GEOGRAPHICAL MOBILITY. “Many workers are little persuaded of the advantages offered by working abroad or in another sector. These are the aspects on which we ought to concentrate”. The aim of this special year, which involves two key themes of European integration, worker mobility and territorial mobility, “is to raise the awareness of workers about the advantages of working abroad or more simply of changing jobs”. According to Špidla “working in another country or in a different sector of activity offers the opportunity to acquire new skills and experiences” and “re-conversion is fundamental today, also in the light of the current globalized economy”. The European Year of Professional Mobility is closely correlated with the Lisbon Strategy, adopted by the EU in 2000 and reformed in 2005. Its objective is to turn the Union into the most competitive knowledge-based economy in the world, without ignoring the employment aspects and social cohesion. The mobility of workers, understood in the geographical sense, is one of the “fundamental liberties” in the EU: the principle was established ever since the founding treaties of the EEC in 1957 (freedom of circulation of persons, goods, capital and services). RESTRICTIONS IMPOSED ON THE NEW ACCESSION COUNTRIES. The aspect of the cross-border mobility of workers appears particularly delicate in this phase of Community history. After the eastward enlargement of the Union on 1st May 2004, a limitation of the expatriation of workers from the former Communist countries was in fact decreed: 12 of the 15 states of the pre-enlargement EU (all except for the UK, Ireland and Sweden) adopted restrictive provisions that they may pursue for a maximum of seven years: after a first experimental phase of these provisions, in May 2006 a decision will be taken whether to confirm the restrictions or eliminate them. The data on professional and geographical mobility between the 25 remain however fairly contained: for example, less than 2% of the EU population lives and works in a country other than that of origin. Among the correlated problems, the learning and use of foreign languages exerts a considerable influence, according to the statistics furnished by Brussels. INAUGURAL CONFERENCE IN FEBRUARY. The first official event of the Year will be the inaugural conference, to be held in Brussels on 20-21 February. This will be followed by various events in the 25 EU member states and in the candidate countries. The theme of the first conference will be “The mobility of workers: a right, a choice, an opportunity”. The promoters, including the EU Economic and Social Committee, maintain that the “conference will permit the various aspects of mobility to be examined in the framework of the objectives of the Lisbon Strategy, and open the way to the debates and pilot projects that will be held in the course of the year”. The event will also mark “the launch of the new Eures portal (http://europa.eu.int/eures), which will enable all citizens to gain direct access to offers of employment published by the national employment services”, equivalent at the present time to a million vacant posts. The meeting will be attended by 450 experts in the sector, European and national political representatives, social partners, trades unionists and representatives of the business community. COMPARISON WITH THE USA AND “EMPLOYMENT EXCHANGE”. A joint EU-USA seminar is planned in June. Its aim is to provide “a comparative analysis of geographical and professional mobility on both sides of the Atlantic, in the context of cooperation between Union and USA in the field of social policy and employment”. The general programme, in tandem with the national events, envisages a conference of social partners (September), the first European Employment Exchange (29-30 September, located in scores of cities throughout the continent), a seminar for jurists on free circulation in the enlarged EU (between October and November), and a final conference (December). The aim of the latter will be to “draw legal, economic and social guidelines on worker mobility”, also with a view to assessing the relevant EU policies. To help promote national projects linked to the Year, the Commission has allocated 4 million euros, to be subdivided into 20-30 financing lines (the tender for bids expired on 12 December and the results are now awaited). In the meantime a special website for the Mobility Year has been activated: http://europa.eu.int/comm/employment_social/workersmobility2006.