EURES from fax/telephone to smartphone.

Has the passage of time affected the services of EURES (EURopean Employment Services)?

Our oldest EURES advisor, Arend Mud, looks back on his 27 years with EURES.

When I “joined”, it was spring 1997, EURES had existed for almost three years, so you could say I come from the “old days”. Walking back to the here and now, I’ll highlight a number of changes that EURES has undergone nationally and transnationally.

My story begins, as I said, in 1997, when I worked at the employment office. At that time, according to the European Commission, this was the place where you should also be able to get information and advice about living and working in one of the other EU/EEA member states. The EU/EEA had 15 member states at that time; Sweden, Austria and Finland had just joined. Each member state still had its own currency. And on September 15 of that year, the domain Google.com was registered. At that time, approximately 475 specially trained EURES advisors (called Euro-consultants in those years) worked in the EU/EEA. On behalf of EURES, they worked at employment offices, trade unions and some universities. This network would grow in the following years, partly as a result of the expansion of the Union, to more than 1,000 advisors in 2024.

Free Movement within Europe

Free movement within ‘Europe’ had existed for some time (since 1968) and in member states with a common border, European services had been provided for quite some time. It was already very common to live in one country and cross the border daily or weekly to work in the neighboring country. But since the early 1990s, transnational services had also been taking shape. However, it would not be until mid-’94 before EURES was established. From that moment on, services were offered under that name to people who wanted to emigrate within the EU/EEA. The advisors were tasked with facilitating and promoting free movement within the EU/EEA and making the European labor market transparent.

From EURES as a “Search Engine” to Google

Besides knowledge, for which there was special training and now also continuing education courses, and our EURES network, we had limited resources. We had a fax/telephone and a computer. This computer made it possible to select job vacancies and send messages to European colleagues. In addition to their regular work, most EURES advisors spent a maximum of 50% of their working time on European services. We were ‘Mr./Mrs. Google’, a human ‘search engine’. In those days, we personally visited the various EU/EEA countries and received, together with other EURES colleagues, specific information about living and working in, for example, Sweden or France for two days. A challenging but fascinating time. Around the year 2000, when in most countries we were already working full-time on European services, the work of the EURES advisor changed in a certain sense. Initially due to the introduction of the internet and a few years later thanks to the most famous search engine: Google. But the expansion of the European Union (from 2004) also had consequences for EURES and the work of the EURES advisor. The demand for information increased. More and more young people, but also older people, became interested in living and/or working across the border. Companies, due to a lack of suitable personnel in their own country, increasingly sought information and advice about recruiting in Europe. Previously, it was mainly companies that used the EURES network when recruiting seasonal staff in the summer; strawberry pickers for Danish companies, entertainers for hotels and campsites in France or Spain, even for Disneyland Paris recruitment was done Europe-wide. Or in winter, at companies in the well-known European ski areas.

Moving with the Times: EURES Shifts its Focus

It must have been somewhere between 2010 and 2015 that EURES advisors in most European countries had to shift their focus. The main goal was then to support companies in their search for employees on the European labor market. Personal assistance to citizens with career aspirations in another EU/EEA country became “Google help”; the EURES portal, Social media (LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook) and the Border Information Points in the Cross borders.

The digital possibilities for providing services increased. European Online Job Days (EOJDs) were introduced as a supplement to on-site job fairs, which is a practical and cost-effective way to connect supply and demand. By then, advisors had laptops, email, smartphones and could even continue working and communicating from the train or from abroad.

In addition, to make it more attractive for employers, but also for job seekers, to recruit or look for work in Europe, the Targeted Mobility Schemes were introduced. EURES received financial resources to make the training of a foreign employee more attractive for employers, but also to support relocation to another country or for an on-site job interview.

The European regulation on which EURES was originally based was amended in 2016 and the EURES network was expanded. Other (commercial) parties could and can become members or partners of the EURES network from then on and offer EURES services. At the same time, a National Coordination Office (NCO) was established in each member state. And with Brexit, we lost a very attractive country for many young (Southern) Europeans to live and work in.

EURES from 2020: Dealing with a Tight European Labor Market

And then there was the Covid crisis in early 2020, free movement was no longer possible or barely possible. Partly due to the continued development of digital resources and rock-solid confidence that things would work out, EURES continued to provide its services.

Meanwhile, in 2021, EURES was placed under a new institute within the European Commission, the European Labour Authority (ELA). The goal of EURES was redefined; free labor mobility is now called: free, fair and sustainable (labor) mobility. Even before Covid, we at EURES already saw shortages emerging in the Dutch labor market, but in virtually the entire EU/EEA, shortages of skilled workers in many sectors were already becoming visible. The result was, although understandable, that many countries provided less to no services to citizens who wanted to emigrate. At this moment, they focus on attracting skilled workers from other EU/EEA countries and in some cases even from outside. You can imagine that this approach has its impact on the work of EURES, the EURES advisors in those countries and thus the cooperation within the EURES network.

Expansion of EURES Netherlands Services

The Netherlands, on the other hand, actually expanded European services in 2022. We now have, in addition to a team for Dutch employers and for the Cross borders, a EURES job seekers team Transnational, with very dedicated, well-trained and extremely capable EURES advisors. All citizens in the Netherlands can therefore (again) personally contact a EURES advisor from UWV EURES for reliable, independent information and advice about living and working in the EU/EEA.

But also the often highly educated partners of knowledge migrants and people from other member states, who export their unemployment benefits from that country, fall under this service. Which can benefit the Dutch labor market.

Certainly, I mentioned it already, the Netherlands also has sectors with shortages. But we must not forget that we cannot stop people with plans to emigrate. Think also of people who are offered another job abroad or who are forced to emigrate as a result. We provide services to emigrants and thereby also benefit employers in other member states. Our philosophy is that by serving each other as member states in this way, we call it reciprocity, we hope to be able to maintain free movement in the EU/EEA. It should be clear that we, on the other hand, do not actively promote emigration when it comes to shortage sectors.

EURES is therefore, in my opinion, still an extraordinarily valuable network that has moved with and adapted to the spirit of the times. To the wishes, the needs of the European labor market, sometimes against the current. But as one team that has a warm heart for the free and fair movement of people within the EU/EEA. Always available for each other, simply under the speed dial of our smartphone!

Arend Mud EURES advisor job seekers services UWV EURES Transnational 1997 – 2024