Civil society organisations should be empowered to help citizens overcome obstacles

Civil society organisations should be empowered to help citizens overcome obstacles

Today, ECAS and the EU Rights Clinic are launching the third of Seven Strategies to improve the free movement of persons as part of the Right to Move campaign.

The third strategy calls on the civil society organisations to be empowered to help citizens overcome obstacles.

Empowering civil society will assist in meeting the legal needs of EU citizens. Despite a significant majority of EU citizens being aware that they have a right to move within the EU, almost two-thirds of them feel they do not have a sufficient awareness of their EU rights. Less than a quarter of citizens feel sufficiently well informed about what to do if their EU rights are not respected and about a fifth of the problems were the result of citizens’ own lack of awareness of their rights. EU citizens who make use of their right to free movement continue to face significant obstacles in the exercise of their EU rights with more than 25% of citizens reporting that they encountered problems in moving within the EU.

Empowering civil society groups to inform and assist mobile citizens will ensure that citizens can make effective use of their fundamental right of free movement and overcome obstacles that may come their way.

Read the Third Strategy