Free Movement of Persons, Services and Capital: Chapter 1 Workers

Abstract

As is well-known, the first steps towards building what is today the EU were taken back in the 1950s and comprised the establishment of three Communities: the European Coal and Steel Community, which was established by the eponymous Treaty in 1952;1 the European Economic Community, created by the EEC Treaty in 1958; and Euratom, which was the result of the Euratom Treaty that also came into force in 1958. The ECSC had a rather narrow aim—that of establishing a common market in coal and steel; Euratom sought to create a platform for cooperation for the peaceful use of nuclear energy; and the EEC, which became the core of the European integration project, was aiming at the creation of a common market in goods, economic actors, services, and capital. Accordingly, as will be seen below, all three Communities included provisions that sought to safeguard and encourage the free movement of workers between the participating MS, as part of the process of establishing a common market.