Homogeneity, the free movement of persons and integration without membership: Mission Impossible?

Abstract

This article provides a detailed legal comparison of the free movement and residence rights, including mutual recognition of qualifications and social security co-ordination, accorded to nationals of the four EFTA States: Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Switzerland. The first half considers the extent to which the EEA Agreement, which relates to the former three countries, secures homogeneity in this area of law; and the second half looks at the EU-Swiss framework for the same purposes. It concludes that the EEA framework, through the activism of its Court, goes a long way to securing homogeneity—to the extent of equating nationality of an EEA-EFTA state with Union citizenship, at least for the purposes of movement and residence. The Swiss system, by contrast, fails miserably in this regard as the rights under the Swiss agreement still mirror those prior to Directive 2004/38.

Keywords

• free movement
• residence
• mutual recognition of qualifications
• social security co-ordination
• efta
• eea agreement
• eu-swiss framework
• directive 2004/38