Brussels, 17/02/2006 (Agence Europe) - On 20 February, the European Commission is officially to launch the "European Year of Workers' Mobility", in order to make the European citizens aware of their rights when establishing themselves in another Member State of the European Union for professional reasons. European citizens are still far too cautious about going to settle and work in another Member State, according to the Eurobarometer survey of September 2005, quoting a very small percentage of just 1.5% of the citizens, which is almost unchanged from figures of 30 years ago. This despite the fact that the European Commission is stepping up its efforts to ensure that citizens established abroad have the same rights as they do in their country of origin (particularly in terms of pension mobility), stressing the importance for workers of acquiring some professional experience abroad, as part of the Lisbon objectives. The difference of mindset from one Member State to the next is considerable: in this way, many Swedes (79%) and Danes (72%) believe that professional mobility is a positive thing, compared to percentages below 33% in Belgium, Germany, Estonia and Greece. On average, 66% of active Europeans said that they would leave their region in order to find work, a percentage which varies between 25% (Austria, Hungary and Ireland) and 50% (Luxembourg and Poland) if it is a question of actually changing countries. The Commission has identified several factors which may prevent citizens from going and working in another Member State: -lack of awareness of the mobility of social protection rights from one Member State to another; -problems speaking languages other than their mother tongue; -problems of finding adequate housing; -difficulties related to the mobility of the family unit (most especially problems for the partner in finding employment).
On Monday, the President of the Commission, José Manuel Barroso, Commissioner Vladimir Spidla, who is in charge of employment, social affairs on equal opportunities, and the Austrian Minister for the economy and employment Martin Bartenstein, on behalf of the Austrian Presidency, will officially launch the updated "EURES" employment web site, which aims to allow the European citizens to access all situations vacant in all 25 Member States and in the three candidates countries (http: //europa.eu.int/eures/home.jsp?lang=en). Several events aiming to promote professional mobility will be organised throughout the year in the Member States, the largest of which being a major "professional fair", to be held simultaneously in 70 European cities and 29 and 30 September. EUROPE will return to this.