The European Commission has adopted a “fair mobility package” intended to guarantee social rights for workers across the European Union and speed up recognition of professional qualifications and social security entitlements for people who move between member states.
What the Commission announced
The package contains several interconnected measures. It introduces a European Social Security Pass to allow people to request and receive social security documents fully online, including the European Health Insurance Card and the EU portable document A1 used for posted workers. These documents can be stored and presented via an EU Digital Identity Wallet, and administrations will be able to verify them digitally.
Qualifications can be issued in a standardised digital format and stored in the EU Digital Identity Wallet to help verify their authenticity. For regulated professionals—such as doctors, nurses, engineers and teachers—the Commission proposes a mandatory digital procedure to accelerate cross‑border recognition, reducing processing times from around three months to five weeks. The package also foresees common training frameworks that define minimum skills and knowledge for specific regulated professions; where applied, these frameworks can extend automatic recognition, with the first such framework already adopted for physiotherapists.
The Commission sets out common standards for recognising qualifications obtained outside the EU for both EU citizens and third‑country professionals, with recognition procedures intended to be finalised within four months.
At institutional level, the European Labour Authority (ELA) will be given stronger tools to support member states in enforcing EU law. Measures include dedicated national inspection liaison officers to reinforce cross‑border cooperation and expertise, and a mandate for the ELA to tackle abuses against third‑country nationals working in the EU and to combat illegal employment.
Why it matters
The package aims to reduce administrative burdens for workers and employers, shorten waiting times for recognition of qualifications from over a year to months in many cases, and make it easier to prove and claim social security and health insurance rights when moving between member states. The Commission also notes that national administrations should benefit from more efficient cooperation to enforce workers’ rights and fight fraud.
The Commission estimates that, once fully in place, the package will deliver around €6 billion in benefits by 2040 through faster recognition of qualifications, real‑time verification of social security documents, fraud avoidance and other savings for businesses, workers and authorities.
What happens next
The measures will take effect only after adoption by the European Parliament and the Council. The Commission says people will see practical benefits once the initiatives are adopted and the main measures enter into force.
The Commission published related factsheets and a communication on the Fair Labour Mobility Package alongside the announcement.
Source: European Commission press release
