Participants of the conference How to improve intra-European mobility and circular migration? Fostering diaspora engagement, organised by the Latvian EU presidency in partnership with Europeans Throughout the World on May 11-12, 2015 in Riga, adopted the Riga Recommendations on a better free movement of Europeans: 5 concrete proposals.

The first area of action concerns the quality of data on intra-EU migration flows. Without timely, regular, and precise data the true impact of migration will not be possible to determine making any forecasting close to impossible. It is strongly advised to establish common standards for probing the relevant data across the EU. More attention is to be devoted to concerns of mobile people, not only in respect to social and economic, but also to cultural and family aspects of their life abroad. Moreover, more studies on main barriers to mobility and the role of return migration and skills acquired abroad have to be carried out. [Read more in the associated downloads]

The second area of actions should involve combating scaremongering about free movement and migration. The national debate in many countries has increasingly focussed on the negative rather than the positive prospects of intra-EU mobility. In this debate, the macro-economic and fiscal effects of intra-EU labour migration for both sending and receiving countries, and the barriers to intra-EU mobility, are ignored as well as the fact that the benefits of labour mobility may outweigh the costs. A public campaign on benefits from mobility has to be launched by countries with the support of European institutions. [Read more in the associated downloads]

The third area of action is related to mitigating negative externalities of migration. Free movement of people, although apparently the EU’s most popular achievement, is being contested to an increasing extent. Whilst overall free movement is a win-win situation for countries of origin, host countries, and European migrants themselves, there are inevitable failures and local problems because of its uneven spread. There should now be emphasis on giving cities and local authorities more power and resources to manage effectively the impact of free movement of people, where there is an impact in selective regions. [Read more in the associated downloads]

The fourth area of action should deal with foreign language proficiency and information asymmetry on employment opportunities in other EU Member States. Foreign (and also native) language proficiency by mobile people and members of their families is an area which has not received proper attention so far, although it has been identified as a major obstacle to greater mobility. Circulation of mobile people, including return migration, is slowed down by a lack of language skills by children necessary for quick and successful integration in the destination country’s schooling system. A wider network of European Schools could be part of the solution.  [Read more in the associated downloads]

The fifth area of action comes to more solidarity among the EU Member States. The skilled and talented European citizens are a common asset, therefore the costs of nurturing the next generation of skilled and talented labour has to be treated among the EU Member States as a shared responsibility. The less populous countries from the Central and Eastern Europe cannot subsidise for long their richest Western partners in terms of supply of human resources. A European approach should be advanced for a better development of relevant skills, in particular for innovation and the digital society, for better anticipation of the labour market needs, and for a better sharing of the burden and of the benefits from mobility between Member States.  [Read more in the associated downloads]