Tag: worker mobility

Mobility is a great European value, and despite the significant shifts in population that have taken place since the EU was enlarged, countries should not be afraid of depopulation, Piotr Maciej Kaczyński, a senior research fellow at the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS), told EurActiv.

Universities in Africa have been "hollowed out" by the steady stream of scientists moving to developed countries, according to the Network of African Science Academies (NASAC).

A pan-European pension fund for researchers and a system of "portable grants" are among a raft of new measures contained in a European Parliament report aimed at boosting scientists' career mobility.

As the French Presidency prepares proposals for a comprehensive, Europe-wide approach to labour immigration, European businesses and trade unions at the 2008 Employment Week called on the EU not to present a "xenophobic" face to the rest of the world. 

Having your educational and professional qualifications recognised in another country came a step closer to realisation on 23 April 2008, as the presidents of the Council and the Commission signed a joint recommendation on boosting the mobility of learners and workers across Europe.

Ageing populations in the science and technology professions are putting the EU's innovation potential at risk, according to the bloc's statistics agency Eurostat, which published new figures last week.

A year after the two countries became full members, workers from Romania and Bulgaria are not emigrating en masse, found a new report by the European Citizen Action Service (ECAS). The NGO concludes that the fears prior to enlargement were unjustified.

The migration of workers from Bulgaria and Romania is a marginal phenomenon, according new figures just published by Eurostat. Mediterranean countries, and notably Spain, are the exception.

In a joint effort, industry and the EU seek to make as many EU residents as possible computer-literate. They profit professionally and in their private lives, and the potential benefits for the economy are huge. 

As Germany starts to feel the effects of an increasing lack of labour force, officials ponder lifting restrictions to the immigration of workers that were imposed when ten new member states joined the EU in 2004.

A better understanding of the links between migration and development is required to implement coherent and effective migration policies, outlines the OECD in its report, 'International Migration Outlook'. The study shows that international migration continues to grow, in response to labour needs.

At the closing conference of the European Year for Workers' Mobility, the Commission EU mobility actors took a positive outlook but stressed that, under EU Treaties, this fundamental freedom of movement is still not commonplace.

The renewed goals of the EU action in the field of vocational education and training (VET) aim to remove the sector's obstacles to mobility to allow a European VET area to be in place by 2010.

Fear of losing their private network is what keeps most Europeans from becoming mobile to find a better job, Eurofound's analysis of Eurobarometer figures reveals.

A UK parliament report argues that the country's economy has benefited from the UK open-door policy towards EU-10 migrant workers in 2004 and calls on EU politicians to engage the public on benefits of EU expansion.

Following the lead of the UK and Ireland, Spain decides to restrict Bulgarian and Romanian access to its labour market.

In spite of the positive impact that labour immigration from eastern Europe has had on the British economy, the UK is unlikely to allow workers from Bulgaria and Romania in after the two countries' accession in January 2007.

An opinion poll reveals that more than 80% of British, French, Spanish, Italians and Germans have no confidence in their governments' immigration policy.

The Bulgarian Economic and Social Council (ESC) suggested that the country's government implement a number of economic measures to encourage Bulgarians living abroad to return home. EurActiv's Bulgarian partner portal Dnevnik.bg talked to ESC Chairman, Professor Lalko Dulevski, about the proposals.

The success of the European Job Days, with 500 events in 300 European cities, has taken the Commission by surprise.

While workers from eastern and central Europe moving to EU-15 countries have little impact on those economies, their countries of origin may have to attract even cheaper labour east of EU borders, according to a World Bank report. 

Thirty months into Hungary's EU membership, it has become clear that the prospect of a far larger labour market has failed to enthuse the country's workforce. EurActiv's Hungarian partner portal Euractiv.hu talked to István Hegedüs, sociologist and chairman of the Hungarian Europe Society.

Member states lock workers from Central and Eastern Europe out of their labour markets, in spite of research which suggests that both sides would benefit from granting them access. In two reports, the European Citizen Action Service (ECAS) questioned the rationality of these so-called transitional measures. In an exclusive interview with EurActiv.com, ECAS Director Tony Venables explains the pros and cons of workers' mobility in Europe. 

Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel's proposal to open the Austrian labour market for nurses from the country's eastern neighbouring states has brought him into conflict with the Social Democrats and sections of his own party.