SPEECH/10/353
Viviane Reding
Vice-President of the European Commission responsible for
Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship
Effectively tackling obstacles faced by
EU Citizens: the need for a new
approach and a new ambition
EU Citizens' Rights Conference – The way forward
Brussels, 1 July 2010
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Today is a very important day. First of all, because the Belgian Presidency of the
European Union starts today and I am delighted that Belgium's Justice Minister
Stefaan De Clerck has agreed to open today's conference together with me to mark
this moment. Stefaan and I both agree that during the next six months, we must
ensure that not institutions, but the citizen must take centre stage in all EU policies.
We have new rules of the game with the Lisbon Treaty that enable us to do much
more for citizens than we could ever do before, notably in the field of Justice
policies. But we are also facing one of the most serious economic crises of this
century. It is therefore of key importance that in coping with this crisis, and in
making use of our new Treaty, we always bear in mind what our European Union is
here for: to serve our citizens.
Today is also a very important day for the EU's Justice policies. Because as of
today, 1 July 2010, the European Commission has created, by a decision proposed
by President Barroso to the College of 27 Commissioners, its own DirectorateGeneral for Justice. This is an important policy signal from the Commission. It is first
of all recognition of the importance of EU policies in the area of Justice. You all
know that these policies started many years ago under the so-called "third pillar" – a
mechanism of cooperation between Member States that gave only marginal say to
the European Commission, the European Parliament and the European Court of
Justice. The Treaty of Lisbon has changed this for the better, and DG Justice will be
working hard under my command to make sure that our citizens will see concrete
results of this institutional improvement. The creation of a DG Justice, which is
managed separately from the Commission's Home Affairs policies, is at the same
time a sign of maturity of EU policies in this area. It is a very normal situation in our
Member States that there is both a Ministry of Home Affairs and a Ministry of
Justice. Both Ministries traditionally see things from a different starting point: the
Home Affairs Ministry normally is more interested in enhancing the security of
citizens; while the Justice Ministry has its focus on strengthening and safeguarding
the rights and freedoms of citizens. At the end of the day, a sound policy needs to
ensure that both perspectives are reconciled. In our Member States, this
reconciliation between security and freedom is done at the political level, between
the Ministers, as it cannot and should not be decided by one administration alone. It
is good news for our citizens that as of today, we will have a similar situation at EU
level. In the future, when we will talk about sensitive civil liberties issues such as
data retention, Passenger Name Records, wire tapping legislation or proposals for
blocking Internet access for public purposes, citizens can be assured that there is
now a place for them to go in Brussels that will look after their interests. There will in
future be a constructive dialogue between the new DG Justice and the new DG
Home Affairs on the best way forward to defend civil liberties and to ensure that
citizens are not forgotten when the EU tries to safeguard important public interests;
but that fundamental rights and citizens' rights are an integral part of all EU policies.
It will take us some time to arrive at the right balance. But I am very sure that
together with my colleague Cecilia Malmström, the very citizen-oriented Home
Affairs Commissioner, and her team in DG HOME, DG Justice and I will arrive at
the right balance, in the interest of our citizens.
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Last but not least, today is an important day because you have all accepted my
invitation to discuss the best way forward on EU Citizenship. I am well aware of the
criticism of Members of the European Parliament that over the past years, the EU
institutions, including the Commission and our Member States have neglected EU
Citizenship. "A lot of talk, but no action", was the key message the European
Parliament gave the Commission when it commented on the progress made on
Citizenship on 20 March 2009, before I took office. When President Barroso
nominated me last November, he asked me to change this situation. He asked me
to ensure that EU Citizenship becomes more than idle words. But that it becomes a
concrete reality in the daily life of EU Citizens. By creating my portfolio in the
Commission, President Barroso showed from the beginning that he meant what he
was saying. He not only added the word "Citizenship" to the title of my portfolio; but
at the same time he entrusted me with concrete policy instruments which will allow
me, over the next years, to fill the notion of Citizenship with concrete results. These
policy instruments include the responsibility for the free movement within the
European Union; civil justice and contract law; consumer legislation, starting from
the Package Travel Directive and reaching to the proposal for a Consumer Rights
Directive; data protection; the rights of the child; gender equality and antidiscrimination legislation; and also the responsibility for ensuring an effective
application of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights.
This huge bundle of policy instruments of course needs to be used in a coherent
and strategic manner. For me, this means that from the beginning, our policies in
this area must follow a very clear vision of what EU Citizenship means. Let me
elaborate on this.
At the early stages of the European project, when Member States created the
European Economic Community in 1957, individuals were primarily regarded as
economic actors. By introducing Union citizenship, the Maastricht Treaty started a
new process paving the way for a Citizens' Europe. On 1 November 1993, thanks to
EU Citizenship, Europeans acquired new rights, in addition to their status as
nationals of a Member State: the right to free movement, regardless of nationality;
the right of consular protection in third countries; the right to send petitions to the
EU institutions or to address a complaint to the European Ombudsman. The most
important new right created at the time was certainly the right of all EU citizens to
participate in local and European Parliament elections, wherever they reside in the
European Union.
Since Maastricht, EU Citizenship has demonstrated its innovatory and dynamic
character:
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the EU legislator has translated these new rights progressively into secondary
law, expressing EU citizens' rights in legislation;
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the European Court of Justice has made EU Citizenship into a source of rights
of its own for all those using their right to free movement within the EU;
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and most recently, the Treaty of Lisbon has revitalised EU Citizenship and
added new elements, by recognising the right of citizens to participate in the
democratic life of the Union, by introducing the “citizens' initiative”, by giving the
EU Charter of Fundamental Rights the status of primary law, and most
important, by strengthening the powers of the European Parliament, which is,
after all, the only body at EU level which is directly elected by all EU citizens.
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After the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty, EU Citizenship now needs to
progress from a concept enshrined in the Treaties to a tangible reality in citizens’
daily lives.
There is a clear need for a new ambition on EU Citizenship.
According to 2008 estimates, 11.3 million European citizens live in a different
Member State than their Member State of origin. Many more have cross-border
experiences when travelling, studying or working, possibly getting married or
divorced, buying or inheriting property, voting, receiving medical treatment or just
shopping online from companies in other EU countries. For instance, there are 16
million marriages involving a cross-border aspect. 2 million European students have
studied in another Member State since the launch of the Erasmus programme in
1987.
To me, these figures, though impressive, still appear to be relatively low when we
compare them to the total of 500 million citizens in our European Union. There are a
number of reasons for this. When asked what the main obstacles are to working in
another EU country, 50% of Europeans cite language barriers and family
considerations that prevent them from moving abroad. In addition, the lack of
information about the opportunities available and administrative hassles plays a
very important role in this context.
Let me take another example: half of EU households have an internet connection,
but only 12% of EU web users feel safe making transactions on the internet:
tellingly, more than 1 in 3 consumers declare that they are wary about buying from
another EU country at a distance or while travelling because they are uncertain
about their rights as consumers.
It is clear to me that we must address remaining gaps and obstacles to free
movement as a matter of priority and make sure that citizens can fully enjoy their
rights under the Treaties regardless of where they chose to reside or where they
chose to source goods and services.
In his political guidelines of 3 September 2009 for the new Commission, President
Barroso stressed the need to reinforce EU Citizenship. He specifically called for
efforts to revitalise the link between citizens and the EU, by giving real effect to their
rights. President Barroso notably called for removing the numerous obstacles
citizens face when they try to source goods and services across national borders in
the EU. The EU institutions should ensure that EU citizens are able to make use of
their rights as EU citizens in the same way as they use their rights as nationals of
their respective Member States.
This is precisely what my portfolio, Justice, Fundamental rights and Citizenship, is
about. EU Citizenship is the essential link all Europeans have with the European
Union. It provides them with rights and benefits in many areas of their daily lives. It
is my ambition to make these rights tangible and to progressively remove all the
obstacles which citizens still encounter when trying to use their rights across
national borders. Citizens need to be confident that their rights are upheld in
practice; and that they are enforced effectively.
For my policies for strengthening EU citizenship, fortunately there exists a very
good blueprint: the "The citizen and the application of Community law" report of 8
June 2008, written by the Honourable Member of the European Parliament Alain
Lamassoure, who is with us here today, and I am very grateful for this. President
Barroso gave me this report when he nominated me as Commissioner and told me:
"Viviane, this is a brilliant piece of work. Alain Lamassoure got it very right. Please
take his ideas up when you start as Commissioner for Justice and Citizenship."
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In his report Alain Lamassoure indeed brought into sharp relief the patchwork of
barriers Europeans still face when seeking to exercise their rights across national
borders. Alain Lamassoure also called for a new EU approach in this context. He
argued very compellingly that the EU institutions need to overcome the current
"organigramme logic" or sectoral thinking in order to remove these barriers.
To give you a concrete example why this is important: Have you ever tried to move
to another country in the EU and then to register your car in that country? This is
the moment when our citizens – after having filled in numerous pieces of paper and
having been to at least four different national administration offices – can see and
experience very concretely what "red tape" means. They also see that EU
citizenship does not work today.
Why has nobody effectively addressed this issue in the past? Because in the
Commission, at least two, if not five Directorates-General would have to be involved
in this, as it requires a look at legal, tax and customs matters all at the same time. In
Parliament, several committees would be in charge of this. And probably at least
three Councils of Ministers will claim a competence for this matter. This is exactly
the point where the "organigramme logic", as Alain Lamassoure has called it, needs
to be overcome. We need to overcome the bureaucratic "cloisonnement" and make
concrete and pragmatic progress in the interests of our citizens. I have therefore
already spoken with my colleague Algirdas Šemeta, who is inter alia the
Commissioner for Taxation and Customs. We intend to work very closely together
to drastically simplify the current national procedures for car registration in the
course of this mandate.
To make progress in the direction of a global, result-oriented spirit on citizenship
that Alain Lamassoure has very rightly called for, I have created, within the
Commission, an Inter-service Steering Group that coordinates the work on
citizenship across Directorates-General, to ensure coherence and speedy results. In
October this year, the result of this work will be published in a "Report on the
practical obstacles to effective EU Citizenship". In his Political Guidelines, President
Barroso has called for a comprehensive report on this issue. The report is meant to
cover the most important obstacles citizens are facing in the EU during their
lifecycle, whether as residents in another country, people who want to marry or get
divorced, as students, as tourists, as consumers who want to buy a product from
another EU Member States via the Internet, or as people who want to exercise their
right to vote in local or European Parliament elections. The Citizenship Report will
also include the 12 most important obstacles which the European Commission will
tackle over the next two years. The Citizenship Report will just be the beginning.
Legislative and enforcement action will follow swiftly afterwards.
I would like to mention a few further examples of obstacles which we could address
in the Citizenship Report:
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Let me start with the right to free movement and residence. This is one of the
cornerstones of the European project. It is one of the most well-known and
cherished rights of EU citizens. Recent surveys1 show that almost 9 out of 10
EU citizens know they have this right. Many of them use it at some point in their
lives: close to 1 in 5 Europeans (17%) envisage working abroad in future.
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Union citizens and their third country family members still face cumbersome and
costly administrative procedures and unacceptable delays when moving to
another Member State. Life partners and family members other than core family
members of Union citizens still encounter serious problems having their rights of
entry and residence recognised.
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Last Eurobarometer was carried out in May 2010.
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Almost 40% of all requests for help and complaints from EU citizens addressed
to the SOLVIT problem-solving network were residence-related issues, despite
the existence of a substantial legal framework guaranteeing EU citizens these
rights. This confirms not only the significance of this right and the EU citizen's
awareness of it, but also the persistence of obstacles.
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The overwhelming majority (almost 96%) of European citizens who wish to work
in another EU country expect recognition of their qualifications to be easy and
automatic. However, on a European-wide average, only 70% of recognition
requests succeed quickly. Under the current EU rules automatic recognition of
qualifications applies only to 7 out of more than 800 professions and where it
does apply, citizens are confronted with administrative malpractices, costs and
delays.
- The potential benefits of labour mobility are, however, important: according to
Alain Lamassoure's report, on average, a citizen seeking a job in another
Member State has almost a 60% chance of finding a job within a year whereas
the chances for a jobseeker who stays in his own Member State are only 33%.
Free movement clearly has a positive impact on economic growth: during the
years 2004-2007, additional mobility from the 10 Member States which joined
the European Union in 2004 increased the GDP of the Union by almost 0,30%.
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Europeans working across borders suffer a great deal of frustration because of
the complexity and the gaps of the system for portability of their social security
rights: the differences between national social and labour laws, coupled with
poor cooperation between national social security institutions, result in delays
and difficulties in exchanging citizens' social security information.
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Notwithstanding the success of exchange programmes throughout the Union,
students wishing to study abroad using the diploma obtained in their home
country or to return to their home country to work after having studied abroad
still face numerous obstacles when it comes to recognising their diplomas or
their study periods abroad. Due to the variety of education systems, national
procedures for establishing whether a diploma gained in one Member State is
equivalent to one gained in another can be time-consuming and frustrating.
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Europeans who for instance inherit a family home in another EU country than
their own may be obliged to pay taxes both in the country where the house is
situated and in their country of residence.
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There is a wealth of information, assistance and problem-solving networks at the
EU level. However, almost 70% of Europeans ignore the existence of any of
them, whilst citizens who know about them are confused about where to
address their questions and what to expect.
It is very clear from these examples: if the EU wants to tackle these different types
of obstacles, we will need to overcome the fragmentation and sectoral approach in
EU policy-making. Only then will we be able to make sure that citizens can enjoy
their rights and opportunities as European Union citizens in their everyday lives.
Ladies and gentlemen,
To take the pulse of European citizens and to better understand their concerns,
needs and expectations, I have already taken several preparatory steps since the
Barroso II Commission started its work on 10 February this year:
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The Commission has launched several surveys, mapping out citizens' concrete
experiences in terms of intra-EU mobility.
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We also have carried out a broad public consultation, which ended two weeks
ago, to give us a deeper understanding of the obstacles citizens face, including
administrative and linguistic barriers, and to identify remedies to tackle them.
These remedies include free movement of civil status documents, training local
authorities about citizens' rights and even considering extending the length of
unconditional residence when moving to another Member State.
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Today's Conference is a further important milestone in the preparation of the
Report. I hope that today – during the day and at the dinner tonight – I will hear
many further ideas and possible initiatives which the Commission should take
into consideration when starting a new era on EU Citizenship with the
Citizenship Report in October.
Ladies and gentlemen,
To steer the Commission's ambitious work on Citizenship will be a truly Herculean
task. Alain Lamassoure certainly knew what he was asking for when calling for the
"décloisonnement" of approaches on Citizenship. This means overcoming
administrative barriers not only for citizenship, but also within administrations, both
national and European. I am therefore not at all surprised that President Barroso
has entrusted this task to a female Commissioner. But even with all the trust in
female talent, I am convinced that one woman alone is not enough to get the job
done. This is why I have appointed another woman to help me with this challenging
task: Françoise Le Bail is my new Director-General for the new Directorate-General
Justice, and I am delighted that she is starting her new job today, with this
conference on Citizenship.
I now wish you a successful conference. Françoise and my team will listen very
carefully to what you all have to say. And you can be sure that no valuable idea will
go unnoticed. If well formulated and practical, a good idea may even find its way
directly into the Commission's Citizenship Report in October.
Thanks a lot for your attention.
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