REGIONAL AND URBAN POLICY - The second ‘Beyond Borders: Breakfast Debate’ on Cross-border commuters: A daily journey between obstacles and opportunities. What lessons have been learnt?

Around 1.85 million workers commute to another country within the EU. Commuting has played a crucial role in developing cross-border regions and presents many advantages for both businesses and job seekers: employers have access to a larger pool of skills while job seekers can choose from a larger number of vacancies. Additionally, it eliminates disparities, and creates a higher cohesion between regions. However, a variety of obstacles hamper cross-border commuting, such as complex administrative procedures, differing taxation systems and lack of qualifications’ recognition. With the COVID-19 crisis normalising remote work, new issues have arisen (a summary of most common benefits and obstacles in EU cross-border regions is displayed below).

date: 20/05/2021

In the 2nd Breakfast Debate, held on 29th April, Mr Pascal Boijmans, Head of Unit at DG REGIO, addressed the ways to tackle the above-mentioned barriers. Much work needs to be done in this regard, despite the EU internal market regulatory and legislative framework, and other ongoing initiatives (e.g. InfoPoint and the EURES network). Mr. Pascal Boijmans also presented the latest data concerning the cross-border commuting in Europe, showing that the phenomenon may represent a consequence of territorial disparities and a way to redistribute wealth across regions.

Can the cross-border commuting be an enabling factor of development? Evidence from the territories

The discussions of the event, organised by DG REGIO’s Border Focal Point Network, an EU professional network that brings together experts on cross-border issues, were launched by addressing the audience with a poll on the cross-border impact on the development of their region. With the objective of introducing the presentations of local experiences to the audience, the poll showed that 91% of participants considered that cross-border commuting has an impact on their region (see poll results below). The local experiences were then going to illustrate this trend.

The Portuguese-Spanish experience

The first case was presented by Ms Joana Bernardo, HR manager at Brunswick Boat Group, a company located in the industrial area of Vila Nova de Cerveira, Portugal and employing Spanish citizens (15% of total employees). The area has an unemployment rate below 5%.

Commuting flows offer a win-win solution for both countries in terms of economic growth and cross-border workers represent an important asset for the region’s businesses. However, they still face problems such as:

Linguistic barrier.
“Country-allocated” benefits that can only be used in one country, such as meal allowances.
Administrative burden, including during the hiring process.
Lack of awareness on cross-border employee’s conditions.

The Pilsen Region experience with the border between the Czech Republic and Germany

Ms Radka Trylčová, Head Director at Chamber of Commerce of the Pilsen Region (CZ), gave a different perspective on the phenomenon.

As from 2011, Pilsen Region companies have struggled to recruit workers, as many Czech citizens were being drawn to work in Germany, with its high wages (3 times higher than in the Czech Republic), and better conditions in terms of social welfare, such as retirement pensions. Due to this phenomenon, some Czech companies even decided to move their factories to other countries.

However, in the past years, the higher demand for labour and improved quality of life in the region has attracted about 60.000 foreigners (from both EU and non-EU countries) and wages between Germany and the Czech Republic are now levelling off.

The Swedish and Danish experience over the Øresund strait

The third case was presented by Ms Marlin Harlestad, Project Manager at Interreg project ‘Jobb på tvärs’ (Jobs across the border) at the City of Helsingborg (Sweden). Helsingborg and Helsingör (Denmark) are neighbouring cities, separated by a 20 minuets ferry trip on the Øresund strait. They share many similarities in terms of culture, language, and administration, and, despite having different currencies, exchange rate is kept stable through lower taxes. However, due to the lack of information, citizens in the area are not necessarily aware of the possibility to work across the strait.

To tackle this, the Interreg project created several information centres aiming to advice citizens on practical and administrative issues. It also helped to establish networks and opportunities for companies and citizens on both sides of the border.

Policy actions for cross-border commuting

Following the presentations of our local experiences that made clearer the impacts of cross-border communiting on regions and what obstacles still need to be addressed, a second question was asked to the audience, this time focusing on whether the COVID-19 pandemic had exacerbated these obstacles. The pandemic, and especially the closure of borders, has magnified the already-existing socio-economic challenges faced by cross-border commuting workers and companies. In this view, 96% of participants believe that further efforts and commitments should be taken (see poll below).

Obstacles can be tackled at several levels: local, national, and European.

The European Commission can act as a facilitator, helping regional authorities by providing them with information and good practices. Ms Sigried Caspar, from DG EMPL, presented the contribution of the EURES cross-border partnership, in place since 1994, which aims to facilitate the movement of workers within the EU. Since its creation, EURES supports mobility through a specific mobility scheme, and today 8 cross-border regions are benefitting from services such as integrated networks, job fair opportunities and other initiatives supporting cooperation across borders.

On a national level, Member States' authorities can contribute through bilateral agreements in fields such as tax and social security.

Finally, regional and local institutions can give support to workers by alleviating the cultural and linguistic barriers. They can also offer support to SMEs, which often miss the administrative capacity to manage legal and fiscal issues.

Watch again

If you could not join us for this event or if you want to watch it again, the recording is available here.

The Breakfast Debate was moderated by Mr Nicola Brignani, partner in t33 Srl, who guided the debate on cross-border challenges from different perspectives and across different territorial contexts.