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Brexit and its repercussions on the free movement of persons

  • The free movement of persons between countries of the European Union and the UK ended on 31 December 2020. Complex rules and visa permit requirements apply. 
  • The automatic mutual recognition of professional qualifications is no longer a reality. 

In the last issue of the IOE-WEC Newsletter, it reported the repercussions of Brexit on employment law and social security regimes.  This issue looks at how it has changed the principle of free movement of persons and the mutual recognition of professional qualifications. 

The end of free movementof persons between countries of the European Union and the UK means that UK citizens will no longer have the freedom to work, study, start a business or live in the EU and vice versa. They will need visas for long-term stays in the EU. However, this does not apply to Irish nationals. 

In terms of residence permit, as of the 1 January 2021, a complex framework of rules distinguishes between long term residents and newcomers.  

  • EEA (European Economic Area, comprising EU countries plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway) and Swiss/UK citizens having resided in the UK/EU prior to the 31 December 2020 or being frontier workers (EEA/UK citizens not living in the UK/EU but working in the UK/EU) are covered by the Withdrawal Agreement (an agreement between EU and the UK that aimed at providing legal certainty during the transition). As such, to maintain their status, they must apply for recognition of permanent residence (each EU/UK country has its own deadline). 
  • The newcomers shall meet the requirements of immigration law of the relevant country of their activity. This means that employers in the UK willing to hire an EU national must submit a sponsor licence application to the UK Home Office. The same is valid also for intra-company transfers. On the other side, employers in countries of the European Union willing to hire an UK national will have to start a procedure for a third country national in line with their national legislation.  

Posted workers are not covered by the withdrawal agreement so their situation is different from one country to another.  

Concerning business travels in the UK, even if there is no need to make any kind of application to enter the country, this does not allow the person to work. The work permit system when travelling to the UK is yet to be completed.

UK nationals entering the European Union do not need to request a Schengen visa for entering and staying in the EU up to 90 days (in a total period of 180 days and considering the past travels in the entire Schengen Area), but the right to work is subject to the local legislation. A work permit may be requested, even for a business trip. Each country has its own exemptions, for instance contingent with the duration of the business trip and the type of business activity.  

Brexit has also halted automatic mutual recognition of professional qualifications in favour of the possibility that each UK qualification body negotiates its own agreement with each European country qualification body and for each type of qualifications.  

As a result, recognition of qualification is going to become quite complex in the next future, until it may get again to a level of automatic mutual recognition.