INTERVIEW: MEP Damian Boeselager on the right of non-EU citizens to move around Europe

Posted on 8 June 2023 by Claudia Delpero

The European Union needs to urgently allow non-EU citizens to be able to move more freely to another EU country, the MEP leading the talks on changes to residency laws says.

“Even under Donald Trump, the US was more attractive for international talent than the EU is,” says Damian Boeselager, a German Member of the European Parliament (MEP).

Boeselager, a member of the Greens/European Free Alliance group is leading the campaign at the European parliament to bring about a rule change that would make it easier for non-EU citizens to move to another EU country.

“The EU has a huge benefit of a large labour market having freedom of movement for EU citizens,” he says in this interview.

“But the truth is that Europe needs labour migration in all areas and all skill levels and therefore, if we want to be more attractive, we should make it easier (for non-EU citizens) to move from one member state to the next…

Continue reading the interview on The Local, a digital publisher with local editions in nine European countries.

Photo: Damian Boeselager by Genevieve Engel © European Union, 2022

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