The study “Harnessing European labour mobility” makes policy recommendations to foster cross-border labour mobility based on a scenario analysis for labour mobility in 2025.
Employment opportunities for citizens and economic prospects for companies can be increased by enhancing the geographic mobility of European workers. The Bertelsmann Stiftung published a set of concrete policy recommendations based on an extensive analysis of five scenarios seeking to identify drivers and challenges for labour mobility in 2025. The "Harnessing European Labour Mobility" study is the result of a yearlong project involving a group of leading experts on European labour mobility and migration issues from across the EU.
In spite of a certain increase observed in the context of eastern enlargement after 2004, labour mobility has historically been low in Europe, in particular when compared to other regions of the world. As a detailed analysis of mobility patterns in the aftermath of the economic crisis shows this situation has not changed significantly over the last years. Only few nationals from the periphery countries hit hardest by the crisis moved to other EU countries. Increased cross-border labour mobility within the EU can therefore have important benefits both for individual citizens and the EU's economy by stimulating growth, employment and social inclusion.
The high number of people without employment throughout the European Union is not only a social challenge. It also points to a large unused potential. More than 2.2 million job opportunities currently remain unfilled across the EU. More mobility on the European labour market can therefore help the EU end this huge waste of resources and tackle some of its major challenges such as sluggish growth and social exclusion.
Policy recommendations
In order to foster labour mobility the authors of the study have put together a set of 16 policy recommendations of which the following five are regarded as essential:
- Invest in training and up-skilling of mobile workers by strengthening the mobility dimension of the European Social Fund (e.g. language courses or exchange programmes).
- Improve European-wide job matching by further developing EURES into a true EU-wide job portal which is attractive and accessible for employers and workers alike.
- Establish “one-stop-shops” for mobile workers providing comprehensive services that go beyond pure job matching and assist, for example, in registration procedures, finding proper housing or schooling for children.
- Simplify coordination of social security systems by closing remaining legal gaps in the area of unemployment and long-term care benefits as well as by making social security coordination more transparent and accessible for citizens.
- Encourage circular migration through targeted policies in sending countries to facilitate return and professional re-integration in order to avoid brain drain.
- Promote free movement and oppose nationalism by emphasising the benefits of mobility, improving monitoring of mobility flows as well as engaging stakeholders in a campaign for labour mobility.
Background
The "Harnessing European Labour Mobility" study was prepared in collaboration with the Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies. It was presented to the public in Brussels on 8 April 2014 and discussed with European policy-makers as well as representatives of trade unions, employers, civil society and academia. Panellists were Commissioner László Andor, Daniel Gros (CEPS), Józef Niemiec (ETUC), Sverker Rudeberg (BusinessEurope) and Conny Reuter (Solidar).