The Commissioner sees the lack of mobility as a great missed opportunity: "What we would like to do through mobility is to encourage European workers to engage in mobility experiences at certain moments in their careers. Overwhelmingly, European workers who are questioned on these experiences indicate that the latter are extremely valuable in the planning of their career and the management of their daily lives."
However, Špidla acknowledged that this fact has not really sunk in with the general public, and the overall mobility score in the EU is thus not good: "There is little or no mobility culture amongst most of the European workforce", due, among other things to "a dual labour market with a small, highly mobile group of workers in contrast to a static majority", where mobile workers don't move as a result of their own choice but "are often obliged to change jobs because of sectorial factors or due to the precarious employment relationship".
When questioned on cultural diversity and language barriers in Europe, which are much higher than in competing economies such as the US, the Commissioner said: "Language and cultural barriers, but also housing and the issue of return, are indeed some of the specificities of the European labour market, which prevent the development of a mobility culture. But we can also look at our diversity as an asset which enables people to access new cultures and working environments. In addition to providing better adaptability of workers to a rapidly changing working environment, mobility is probably one of the best ways to experience the European added value."
Read the full interview.
