Migration & Information (Europe)
[The Week in Germany, March 28, 1997] EU: LACK OF INFORMATION BIGGEST
IMPEDIMENT TO FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT
Most citizens of the European Union are aware that they have the
right to resettle and work in any of the
fifteen EU member states. Too few, a study sponsored by the
European Commission contends,
understand fully what that means in practice. The commission
appointed a working group of experts to
examine why more Europeans have not taken advantage of their
right to take up residence in other EU
nations. In a report issued this month, the working group
concludes that the greatest obstacle to freedom
of movement is simple ignorance. The EU member states have
created the necessary legal framework to
allow one another's citizens to exercise their rights of
residence and employment, the working group
maintains. Many citizens, on the other hand, are uncertain about
just how far those rights extend.
Confusion is particularly serious, the working group notes,
about social welfare guarantees, tax matters
and labor law. Bureaucratic complications, it adds, also deter
numerous Europeans from relocating within
the EU. Germany is now home to approximately 1.8 million
citizens of other EU states. The number has
been growing by about two percent annually.
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