On 15 September 2026, the European Commission presented its new Fair Labour Mobility Package, aimed at facilitating the movement of workers and businesses across the EU while ensuring that mobile workers can effectively exercise their social and labour rights. The package combines digital solutions, simplified administrative procedures and stronger cooperation between national authorities, with a particular focus on reducing administrative burdens, preventing fraud and improving the enforcement of EU labour mobility rules.

Background

The Fair Labour Mobility package responds to the growing mobility of workers within the EU. In 2024, around 14 million Europeans lived in another EU Member State, including more than 10 million people of working age. It also follows the call by EU leaders to facilitate worker mobility through greater recognition of professional qualifications and skills portability, in line with the “One Europe, One Market” roadmap.

Fair Labour Mobility Package

The package consists of a Communication on fair labour mobility and five legislative proposals. These include:

• a Regulation establishing a European Social Security Pass (ESSPASS),
• the so-called “Skills Portability Act” on digital and comparable qualifications,
• a Regulation strengthening the European Labour Authority (ELA),
• amendments to the Directive on the recognition of professional qualifications,
• a Directive concerning the recognition of qualifications of third-country nationals.

The Commission estimates that, once fully implemented, the measures could generate benefits of approximately €5 billion by 2040, including around €1 billion in simplification gains.

Digitalisation of social security documents

A central element of the package is the proposed European Social Security Pass (ESSPASS), which would allow individuals to request and receive social security documents entirely online. Importantly for cross-border employment and posting of workers, the system would include the portable document A1, as well as the European Health Insurance Card. Through the EU Digital Identity Wallet, workers would be able to store and present these documents digitally when moving between Member States, while national authorities would be able to verify them more quickly and securely.

The Commission would introduce the digitalisation process progressively. The Portable Document A1 for posted workers is expected to be digitalised first, one year after the ESSPASS Regulation enters into force, followed by the European Health Insurance Card and other social security documents within three years. The Commission estimates that faster cross-border verification could generate significant savings for businesses, healthcare providers and labour inspectors, while digital signatures could also help reduce fraud.

Facilitating the recognition of qualifications

The package also aims to make professional qualifications easier to understand and recognise across Member States. The new system would issue qualifications in a standardised digital format and make them available through the EU Digital Identity Wallet. In addition, the Commission proposes an EU-wide qualifications comparison tool based on national qualifications databases, enabling employers and workers to compare qualifications obtained in different Member States more easily.

For regulated professions, a mandatory digital recognition procedure is proposed with the aim of reducing the time required for cross-border recognition from approximately three months to five weeks. The Commission also intends to extend automatic recognition to additional regulated professions through common training frameworks. Separate measures would establish common standards for the recognition of qualifications obtained outside the EU, potentially reducing the average procedure from 14 months to four months.

Strengthening the European Labour Authority

Finally, the Commission proposes to reinforce the role of the European Labour Authority (ELA) in supporting Member States with the enforcement of EU labour mobility rules. The ELA would receive enhanced tools for risk assessment to help national inspectorates better target controls, together with stronger mechanisms for cross-border cooperation and dedicated national inspection liaison officers.

The proposed changes would also expand the ELA’s role in addressing abuses involving third-country nationals and combating illegal employment. Its mediation procedure would be simplified to facilitate the quicker resolution of cross-border disputes and reduce the need for litigation.

Next steps

The European Parliament and the Council will now examine the proposals. Their practical application will therefore depend on the adoption of the relevant legislation. According to the Commission’s current timetable, the measures on qualifications and skills portability will also be introduced progressively, while the changes to the ELA’s mandate are expected to be implemented between 2028 and 2030.