Freedom of Movement and EU Citizenship - Speech by Martin Schulz President of the European Parliament at the National Institute for Economic and Social Research

Ladies and gentlemen,

Let me first thank all of you for being here and the National Institute for Economic and Social Research and the European Parliament Information Office in London for putting this event together.

As a child, I experienced borders on a daily basis.

I grew up in the border region of Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium - and I remember vividly queuing at the wooden turnpikes on my way to visit family.

They were the borders between countries.

They still exist today.

Even though the wooden turnpikes have gone, and no one is stopped to show their passport.

Borders exist between countries just as they exist within countries. Borders that separate the poor from the rich. The lesser educated from the more educated. Language borders. And borders in people's minds. Us and them.

Much more than for erecting barriers, it takes courage to bring them down.

And it certainly took courage from the founders of the European community to embark on such a remarkable journey.

Only moments after the end of the Second World War, brave men and women dared to say:

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  we will not put up walls, we will open borders;

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  we will not crush our arch-enemies but help them to their feet;

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  we will not protect our national economies but link them closely together.

The founders decided to face the future together. Because they understood that together we are stronger.

And indeed, together we grew stronger. We built a community unique in human history. A tremendous success story. Enemies became friends. A region plagued by hunger developed the richest internal market in the world. And dictatorships became democracies.

Now there are attempts to create new barriers between countries.

Stirring a feeling of panic over so-called benefit tourists from Romania and Bulgaria wanting to plunder the social systems of the host countries.

Facts are twisted. Sweeping generalisations made. Outright lies told. Then those lies are repeated, again and again until people start to believe them.

What makes me sad and angry in all this debate is the undertone of national resentment.

Hatred is spread. People are used as scapegoats.

What I want us to have is a calm debate, a fact-based debate on free movement.

I am a realist. I know that not everything is rosy. People fear free movement is becoming a free-for-all. Any problems need to be addressed head-on. This is even more important as recent statistics show that the number of EU citizens coming to the UK is increasing.

We must manage this well!

So as a start let us have a calm and fact-based debate tonight, and I hope, in the important months to come.

Ladies and gentlemen,

Let me start by stating one thing: one issue that is unrelated but often gets mixed up in the debate on free movement is migration from outside the EU.

Mobile EU citizens have particular rights under the Treaties.

Discussing migration, especially now that the world is confronted with the highest number of refugees since the Second World War, is equally important but it relates to a totally different set of rules and rights.

So let us look at the rules and rights relating to EU citizenship:

The truth is that no-one can travel to another Member State without a job and immediately claim social benefits.

The truth is that no-one can indefinitely claim a right of residence if they have insufficient means and no genuine chance of getting work.

The truth is that our countries benefit from mobile EU citizens.

These EU citizens tend to be young, highly motivated and well-trained. The vast majority move to another EU country to work. In fact, the activity rate of EU citizens in the UK is higher than the one of UK-born workers! They pay taxes and stabilize our social systems, especially our pension funds. They are net contributors to the public purse.

A University College of London study from November 2014 shows that over the last decade EU citizens working in the UK have paid 20 billion pounds more into the UK budget than they have received. Workers from Central and Eastern Europe contributed five billion pounds more than they received.

Ladies and gentlemen,

We have to be clear about what the Treaties and our legislation say. They do not say that the rights pertaining to EU citizenship are absolute. They say that EU citizenship entails rights but also responsibilities. Those rights, say the EU Treaties, are subject to "conditions and limitations".

They say that mobile citizens have a duty not to become an unreasonable burden on the social assistance system of the host country. And the EU's Court of Justice has confirmed this on several occasions.

Let me be clear on another point: EU law does not and should not protect those who abuse the system.

By claiming child benefit in several countries;

By obtaining residence rights for themselves or third country nationals based on fake documents or sham marriages.

Governments are in the driving seat in uncovering abuse and the Commission supports them in their legitimate task of sorting out those who have EU rights and those who don't. We cannot let a small minority of people who don't play by the rules affect the status of all EU citizens working, studying or retiring in another Member State.In fact we need to make life harder for the fraudsters, and easier for those with a legitimate claim to move!

In the European Parliament we have a key role in legislating on this and, together with my friend Claude Moraes as Chair of the Civil Liberties Committee, we take this task very seriously.

We defended the Erasmus student exchange programme against budget cuts.

We work to reduce administrative burdens for international couples, for civil status documents, for cross-border inheritance.

Ladies and gentlemen,

And because I am a realist, let me also tell you that we have another problem. A problem that the populists are choosing to ignore.

These are the foreign workers toiling away for slave-wages in our slaughterhouses or as bogus self-employed persons on construction sites.

That’s not only wage dumping. It’s criminal exploitation! We must fight against this!

But the women and men who want to work are not the problem.

The problem is the lack of willingness to create and enforce proper EU rules that prevent the exploitation of human beings.

I invite the UK government to work with us on a Posting of Worker's Directive that will put an end to social dumping and exploitation.

Ladies and gentlemen,

EU mobility contributes to putting the schools, housing and infrastructure of a limited number of cities and local communities under strain. They simply don't have adequate means, be it financially or in staff, to deal with the situation.

These towns and local administrations must receive a helping hand - both from their central government and through the better use of available EU funds.

However, to use the pretext of an alleged onslaught on our social systems to penalise the vast majority of EU citizens, to restrict freedom of movement and re-erect borders - that is anti-European propaganda.

Those who want to restrict freedom of movement in this way in Europe, in the UK or in any Member State do us harm!

Let's not forget: freedom of movement is a two-way movement. The UK has always been as much an "importer" as an "exporter".

More than two million UK citizens are living in other European countries. Eight hundred thousand only in Spain according to the British embassy in Madrid.

Should their free movement be restricted, too? Should they be excluded from social benefits, too?

I am grateful to all trade unions and employers who expose the real consequences of this propaganda: those whose skills are most needed are being discouraged from moving.

Ladies and gentlemen,

Let me say this loud and clear: as the President of the European Parliament, I stand for free movement as a fundamental freedom and a pillar of the European Union!

For most Europeans it is the most important achievement of European integration - that today they can study, work and live wherever they want in Europe.

And I will defend this right, this unique achievement, against all forms of discrimination.

It takes so much time and courage to tear down borders.

Let us not erect new borders out of fear.

Thank you for your attention.