Free movement of workers : the fundamental freedom ensured but better targeting of EU funds would aid worker mobility; Special report No 06, 2018

In 2018, we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the founding regulation on the free movement of workers, one of the four fundamental freedoms of the Union. We found that the tools put in place by the Commission ensure the freedom of movement of workers but deserve to be better known. The similarity of the respective objectives of the two EU funds supporting labour mobility (ESF and EaSI) make complementarity between them challenging and weaknesses in the monitoring system hamper the evaluation of the funded actions. Finally, the EURES portal of vacant posts in the EU will only develop into a true European placement tool if shortcomings such as the low rate of vacancies published on it are addressed.