European regulations

Official Journal L 257 of 19th October 1968

- Regulations (EEC) n° 1612/68 by the Council, of 15th October 1968.
- Directive 68/360/EEC by the Council, of 15th October 1968.

Regulations (EEC) n° 1612/68 by the Council, of 15th October 1968, in relation to the free movement of labour within the Community.
Council Directive 68/360/EEC of 15 October 1968 on the abolition of restrictions on movement and residence within the Community for workers of Member States and their families


Directive and regulations taken to apply the principle of the free movement of people established in the 1957 Treaty of Rome.
The main dispositions for nationals from a member country of the European Union :
- no more exit and entry visa (an identity card or a passport is enough), free crossing of borders, freedom of settling and of stay for the worker and his family ;
- freedom to have an occupational activity, elimination of any discrimination in the access to a job in comparison with national workers (however, we have to wait until the 1992 Treaty of Maastricht for the access to public jobs to be opened to nationals from the member countries) ;
- abolition in Belgium of the work permission and of the work permit ;
- equal treatment as regards employment and work conditions, payment, redundancy, social and tax advantages, work conditions, exercising of union rights, access to accommodation, etc.

A national from a member country of the EU doesn’t need a residence permit and a work permit any longer to settle in Belgium and enter the Belgian employment market. Discriminations are eliminated : no more conditions for the access to and the practice of a job, special recruitment procedures are abrogated.
At legal level, foreigners coming from a member country of the Union go from the « immigrant » status (with all legal dispositions and regulations applying to this status) to the status of a national from a member state of the Community. They are no longer concerned by the dispositions taken as regards immigration which only apply to people coming from countries outside the EU. However, the legislation as regards naturalization remains applicable to them.
The free movement is a right of European citizens (and no longer of workers) but a right reserved for citizens from member states only.
From that moment on, when people study the migration phenomenons, they have so to distinguish the criteria in force for nationals from the EU and those for foreigners from outside the EU.
The benefits of these dispositions have progressively been broadened to other immigrants because their country of origin has joined the European Union.

http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:31968L0360:FR:HTML and http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:31968R1612:FR:HTML

Philippe Plumet

INFOREF

External expert. Project leader - Educational coordination unit “Democracy or barbarism”, Ministery of French-speaking community in Belgium