- The Oxford Handbook of European Union Law
- Preface
- Notes on the Contributors
- The Philosophy of European Union Law
- Legal Reasoning in EU Law
- Straddling the Fence: The EU and International Law
- EU Competences: Existence and Exercise
- Legal Acts and Hierarchy of Norms in EU Law
- Accession and Withdrawal in the Law of the European Union
- The Court of Justice of the European Union
- The Primacy of EU Law in European and National Law
- Effectiveness of EU Law before National Courts: Direct Effect, Effective Judicial Protection, and State Liability
- Human Rights in the EU
- External Action: Common Commercial Policy, Common Foreign and Security Policy, Common Security and Defence Policy
- The Democratic Ambiguity of EU Law Making and its Enemies
- Comitology
- The Evolution of Infringement and Sanction Procedures: Of Pilots, Diversions, Collisions, and Circling
- Judicial Review in the European Union
- The ECJ and the National Courts: Dialogue, Cooperation, and Instability
- Accountability
- The Free Movement of Workers in the Twenty-first Century
- The Developing Legal Dimensions of Union Citizenship
- Governing Goods: Content and Context
- Freedom of Establishment and Regulatory Competition
- The Law on the Free Movement of Services: Powerful, but Not Always Persuasive
- The Complex Weave of Harmonization
- Competition and Merger Law and Policy
- Competition Law Enforcement
- An Evolutionary Theory of State Aid Control
- EU Intellectual Property Law: Exercises in Harmonization
- The Metamorphosis of European Economic and Monetary Union
- Financial Markets Regulation
- Death, Taxes, and (Targeted) Judicial Dynamism: The Free Movement of Capital in EU Law
- Direct Taxation and the Fundamental Freedoms
- EU Criminal Law under the Area of Freedom, Security, and Justice
- EU Asylum and Immigration Law under the Area of Freedom, Security, and Justice
- The Harmonization of Civil Jurisdiction
- Pursuing Equality in the EU
- The EU and National Systems of Labour Law
- Welfare Policy and Social Inclusion
- Experts and Publics in EU Environmental Law
- Index
Abstract and Keywords
This contribution provides a critical analysis of the free movement of workers in the European Union. It starts by recalling the legal framework, describing the main rights guaranteed to migrant EU workers by the Treaty and secondary legislation, as interpreted by the European Court of Justice. It then focuses on some problematic areas of the law: the notion of ‘genuine activity’, which is both nebulous and random in its application; and the notion of ‘remuneration’ which, at present, risks excluding atypical employment contracts from the protection of the Treaty (such as zero hours contracts and unpaid internships) as well as work provided in the domestic context, even though those activities have an economic value for the recipient. The chapter then turns to a brief analysis of the derogations imposed on workers from acceding countries, to conclude that the free movement of workers risks being undermined by protectionist rhetoric.
Keywords: free movement, workers, migration, Union citizenship, enlargement, family reunification, barriers to movement, equal treatment, workseekers, remuneration
Eleanor Spaventa, University of Durham
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- The Oxford Handbook of European Union Law
- Preface
- Notes on the Contributors
- The Philosophy of European Union Law
- Legal Reasoning in EU Law
- Straddling the Fence: The EU and International Law
- EU Competences: Existence and Exercise
- Legal Acts and Hierarchy of Norms in EU Law
- Accession and Withdrawal in the Law of the European Union
- The Court of Justice of the European Union
- The Primacy of EU Law in European and National Law
- Effectiveness of EU Law before National Courts: Direct Effect, Effective Judicial Protection, and State Liability
- Human Rights in the EU
- External Action: Common Commercial Policy, Common Foreign and Security Policy, Common Security and Defence Policy
- The Democratic Ambiguity of EU Law Making and its Enemies
- Comitology
- The Evolution of Infringement and Sanction Procedures: Of Pilots, Diversions, Collisions, and Circling
- Judicial Review in the European Union
- The ECJ and the National Courts: Dialogue, Cooperation, and Instability
- Accountability
- The Free Movement of Workers in the Twenty-first Century
- The Developing Legal Dimensions of Union Citizenship
- Governing Goods: Content and Context
- Freedom of Establishment and Regulatory Competition
- The Law on the Free Movement of Services: Powerful, but Not Always Persuasive
- The Complex Weave of Harmonization
- Competition and Merger Law and Policy
- Competition Law Enforcement
- An Evolutionary Theory of State Aid Control
- EU Intellectual Property Law: Exercises in Harmonization
- The Metamorphosis of European Economic and Monetary Union
- Financial Markets Regulation
- Death, Taxes, and (Targeted) Judicial Dynamism: The Free Movement of Capital in EU Law
- Direct Taxation and the Fundamental Freedoms
- EU Criminal Law under the Area of Freedom, Security, and Justice
- EU Asylum and Immigration Law under the Area of Freedom, Security, and Justice
- The Harmonization of Civil Jurisdiction
- Pursuing Equality in the EU
- The EU and National Systems of Labour Law
- Welfare Policy and Social Inclusion
- Experts and Publics in EU Environmental Law
- Index