Internal Market - Free Movement of People

Free Movement of People

See also: Directive 2004/38/EC on the right to move and reside freely

The free movement of people means EU citizens can move freely between member states to live, work, study or retire in another country. This required the lowering of administrative formalities and more recognition of professional qualifications of other states. Fostering the free movement of people has been a major goal of European integration since the 1950s.

Broadly defined, this freedom enables citizens of one Member State to travel to another, to reside and to work there (permanently or temporarily). The idea behind EU legislation in this field is that citizens from other member states should be treated equally with domestic ones – they should not be discriminated against.

The main provision of the freedom of movement of persons is Article 45 of the TFEU that prohibits restrictions on the basis of nationality.

Read more about this topic:  Internal Market

Famous quotes containing the words free, movement and/or people:

    “You only have power over people so long as you don’t take everything away from them. But when you’ve robbed a man of everything he’s no longer in your power—he’s free again.”
    —Alexander Solzhenitsyn (b. 1918)

    “The American suffrage movement has been, until very recently, altogether a parlor affair, absolutely detached from the economic needs of the people.”
    —Emma Goldman (1869–1940)

    “The secret of the demagogue is to appear as dumb as his audience so that these people can believe themselves as smart as he is.”
    —Karl Kraus (1874–1936)