3. The European Union and free movement
3.1 The background of the establishment of the EU
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enjoying the freedom of movement. In contrast, the options would be severely limited if without the free movement.
Politically speaking, freedom is one of the traditions valued in the European history of political thought. Freedom has been seen as with intrinsic value. It means that the freedom of movement is in itself valuable, and to be able to enjoy freedom of movement is something that people find good. For people who live in a democratic country, it is perhaps difficult to imagine to live without the freedom of movement. Try to imagine now if you want to go to a place, say another city, for a visit or just travel. However, the point is not why you want to go there. You just want to go, without any particular reasons. If you do not violate someone else’s right, but you still need permission to do so, you will probably wonder what grounds the authority to do so? Another more extreme case is those who serve penalty in the prison. If deprivation of one’s freedom of movement can be a penalty, it implies that it is of great value; otherwise, the country wouldn’t take it away under the circumstances when one commits severe crime. As a result, the freedom of movement in the EU is considered to be a right, rather than a privilege.
To sum up, I argue that the achievements of the EU have exemplified the instrumental and intrinsic values of the freedom of movement. Hence, my goal in this chapter is to illustrate the correlation between the EU and the concept of the freedom of movement.
3.1 The background of the establishment of the EU
The purpose of explaining the background of the establishment of the EU is not to tell historical stories but to dig out the reasons of the idea of integrating European countries and to see how freedom of movement can serve as a means to the end, which are the goals of the EU.
The first step of the integration was the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC). The first reason to found ECSC was to bind Germany’s power to prevent it from again being a threat to the Europe. At that time, arms were made of coal and steel; therefore, to control the production of these materials means to prevent the war from happening. Germany as the target to be restricted, responded positively to the plan since it would remove the restriction on Germany of its production of steel and coal for industrial purpose, and therefore was of economic value. (Eilstrup-Sangiovanni and Verdier 2005, 106) What is more, it was a chance for Germany to show its
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peaceful intention to its neighbors. To remove the doubts of French people and to merge production of coal, iron and steel represents the basis for the re-armament. (ibid)
The ECSC was a milestone in the European history since it was the first supranational organization to manage the resources in Europe. The policy to remove tariffs lowers the cost of the production and also makes it more effective. Having achieved the success of the expansion of the economy, in 1957, the European Economic Community (EEC) was founded. The EEC held similar goals as the ECSC did. The EEC aimed to bind Germany by reorienting German economic interests toward the community and by securing balanced economic growth. During 1954-55, the West German trade and national income grew quicker than other countries; as a result, pulling Germany into a European community and granting other states influence over its economic were the measures required to take. The proposal immediately gained recognition in France. The spokesman of the French government on Europe urged the parliament to accept the proposal by arguing that “the EEC would bind Germany to the West with a ‘thousand small linkages’ thereby minimizing the possibility of Franco-German conflict or German-Soviet rapprochement.”
(Eilstrup-Sangiovanni and Verdier 2005, 109)
Another reason to found the EEC according to the scholars was that the US and Japan were growing to be the leading economic powers globally. To make sure that Europe could maintain its role in the global market, it was urgent for Europe to deepen the integration so it would prevent Europe to decline in terms of its role in the global economics. Having expanded to broader aspects, the EEC focused on not only the coal and steel production, but the whole trade policies. It removed the tariffs of all goods within the member states and further aimed to have a common tax rate to the external trading partners. Therefore, it was not only just a customs union but required common regulations for commodity, services, finance, and so on, which guarantees the fair market mechanism. Besides, the initial member states including the Benelux, Germany, France, and Italy set the schedule to further resolve issues regarding the single market such as the freedom of workers, services and capital.
Although the EEC had achieved the milestone of the European economic integration, as what mentioned above, it was not until 1992 when the treaty of Maastricht was signed and the EU was formed so that the physical and technical barriers were removed from the European Single Market. Under the framework of the European Single Market, member states enjoy not only the
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benefits of removal of the tariffs but also the full free movement of the workers, capital, goods, and the services. The free movement of the goods was the first to be implemented. The border control on goods was eliminated at an early stage. However, the free movement of the workers were implemented much later when the Schengen Agreement came to be effective in 1995.
(Fontaine 2014, 21)
The Schengen Agreement aims to provide a borderless area where people can move freely without being checked their travel credentials. It also indicates that workers within the member states can decide where they want to work in the Schengen area. It removes all the assessment procedures, application of the working permits and so on. The purpose is to make the most of the market mechanism. Without the restrictions, demand and supply will reach the balance to create the greatest revenue. During the post-war period, Europe was desperate in need of workers to rebuild the industry. At that time, the lack of skilled industrial workers was seen as a threat to the economic development; therefore, labor mobility was encouraged and freedom of skilled workers was granted in the EEU. In addition to the six founding members of the EEU, workers were also recruited outside of the Europe through bilateral agreements. The most well-known examples were the Turkish people who migrated to Germany, Algeria to France and the British Commonwealth countries to the UK. (Koikkalainen 2011)
These guest workers have proved to contribute to the economic growth of these accepting countries. Now with the European Single Market, the goals are not only to compensate labor force for some of the countries facing the shortage of industrial workers but also to encourage the professionals such as lawyers, doctors to practice in the EU as they wish.
The history of the European integration is a complicated process accompanied with economic, political, and diplomatic concerns. The goals are to ensure the lasting peace, economic and political stability to its people. To serve this goal, the freedom of movement has been played a significant role. So far, I have demonstrated the background of the European integration and introduced the contour of the relationship between the EU and the freedom of movement. In the next chapter, I aim to further analyze the concepts of the freedom of movement and how it serves its values to achieve the objectives of the EU.