In its definition, the Commission discerns two different kinds of mobility:
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Geographical mobility: As compared to people elsewhere in the world, Europeans are geographically particularly immobile. They are strongly attached to their home countries, the frontiers of which often coincide with language barriers. Only two percent of Europeans live in a country other than their country of origin. Only five percent have moved outside their country of origin at some time.
- Cross-border mobility: With a 7% cross-border mobility rate, highly educated people are relatively most mobile, but at 4% people with an intermediate education level are more attached to their countries than those with a low level of education (5%). In contrast to these low figures, as many as 25% to 50% of Europeans - depending on where they come from - say they would move to a different country for a job.
- Regional mobility: In contrast, one third of Europeans have at some time moved away from their native region and are still happy with that decision. In general, more highly educated people are more willing to move to a different region: 43% of this segment of the EU population have moved away from their native region, but only 23% of lower educated people have done so. Two thirds of the overall population say they would move to a different region to find a job.
- Occupational mobility: Europeans are also quite attached to their jobs. At 10.6 years, the average time spent in one job in Europe is more than 50% higher than is the case in the US. Job mobility is higher in countries where high social standards are coupled with low job protection - as in Denmark and Sweden - and lower in countries where jobs are protected. However, relatively poor welfare works as a deterrent for taking risks, as is the case in Belgium or Poland. Workers who are more mobile are also more likely to acquire new skills and consequently to raise their long-term chances on the labour market. 25% of workers who had moved to a different region for a new job said they had to use different skills after changing employer. Only 15% taking a new job in the same region acquired new skills.
When Europeans are asked whether they rate long-distance mobility as more positive than negative, traditional values play an important role. Also, mobility is rated most positively in Ireland, which has a strong tradition of labour migration, and it is rated most negatively in Cyprus and Greece, where families still play an important role in social protection.
While the Commission struggles to get workers on the move, all of the EU-15 member states with the exception of the UK, Sweden and Ireland still deny workers from the eight central European countries which joined the EU on 1 May 2004 this right. These so-called transitional measures will be reviewed in 2006 and may be renewed for three more years. Thereafter, they may be renewed for a further, final period of two years, but only if there is evidence that labour flows had disrupted, or were threatening to disrupt, a country's labour market. Finland and Spain have announced that they will lift the measures on 1 May 2006.
