Eures network: Helping people find a job in another EU country

Although some parts of Europe suffer from high unemployment rates and employers in other parts struggle to fill vacancies, relatively few people decide to look for a job in another EU country. The European network of Employment Services (Eures) was launched in 1993 to help with this. The employment committee votes on Tuesday 23 June on proposals to improve the Eures network as well as to further integrate Europe's labour markets and facilitate workers' access to mobility services.

Lack of labour mobility

Language barriers and the difficulty of finding a job abroad means relatively few people in Europe move to another member state for work. Every year only 0.29% of people do so in the EU (excluding Croatia), while in Australia 1.5% move between the eight states for a job and in the US 2.4% of workers cross state lines for employment, according to an OECD study published in March 2012. In total only 7.5 million out of 241 European workers - about 3.1% - has a job in another EU country.

Eures

Eures was set up to facilitate the free movement of workers within the EU, Norway, Iceland, Lichtenstein and Switzerland. The network coordinated by the European Commission helps employers wanting to recruit workers from other countries.

New proposals

New legislation aims to make it easier to find work abroad by improving the Eures network, creating the largest possible pool of job vacancies and CVs in the EU and making it easier to match them. The plans also cover apprenticeships and traineeships and set out to facilitate the exchange of information between EU countries on labour shortages and surpluses. However, labout market policy, including all support measures, remain the responsibility of member states.

The employment committee votes on the proposals on Tuesday. Austrian EPP member Heinz K. Becker, who is in charge of steering the plans through Parliament, said: "The success of the Eures network will hinge on the incorporation into the network of effective public and private employment services in the member states and on targeted, EU-wide efforts to raise the profile of the network, in the form of intensive Commission and member state communication measures aimed at the general public. Member states have here a particular responsibility.”