After two extremely busy days the fith edition of the European Labour Mobility Congress is now over.

The first day began with the speech of the President of the Labour Mobility Initiative, Stefan Schwarz. Next on the stage came representatives of science, politics, public administration and lawyers. Due to the sudden changes in the schedule, Commissioner Elżbieta Bieńkowska was forced to resign from taking part in the Congress, but the European Commission was represented by Marzena Rogalska from DG GROW. Presentation of the Honorary Guest Prof. Danny Pieters from the Catholic University of Leuven and panel discussions have pointed to the scale of the problems in the EU labour mobility market. On the other hand, according to the majority of panelists, the upcoming change of regulations on this issue will not improve the situation, and will even push many employees to the so-called ‘shadow market’, completely outside the system of labour law and social security. Participants of the event could also take part in a photo-petition of the LMI Association #protectionismisNOTfair calling for protection of the freedom to provide services in the European Union.

Labor Mobilis Gala

The first day of the Congress was crowned with the Labor Mobilis Gala. This year’s statuette was awarded to Prof. Jozef Pacolet and Frederic De Wispelaere from HIVA Research Institute of KU Leuven ‘for their persistence and impartiality in the study of posting workers’. More information about winners is available here.

Workshops on the second day

The second day of the event was addressed primarily to entrepreneurs. Nevertheless, we have also hosted public administration employees and researchers in the field of labour law. During the series of workshops, one could gain hands-on knowledge of the posting of workers and related formalities. The workshops of our Partners – KPMG and Deloitte were extremely popular. In addition, the participants could take part in consultations with the Polish Social Insurance Authority – ZUS.

In conclusion, two days behind us were full of exchange of knowledge, experience and ideas. Despite the forthcoming changes in the rules for posting workers, the ELMC demonstrates that labour mobility is still a very popular subject in Europe, which can be discussed in a meaningful and substantive way.

See the photo gallery here.