The free movement of people is the EU’s “most incendiary issue”.   This “sacred principle” to which the Brussels ideologues remain devoted isn’t just a sticking point in Brexit negotiations, it’s a source of tension across the Union: currently, France violates its spirit by patrolling the Italian border to stop migrants slipping through. More than that, it’s played a key role in creating Europe’s mass migration problem. Movement of people from poor, chaotic countries to rich, stable ones has long been a fact of life – what’s new is “the miraculous invitation offered by a borderless Europe”. It sends a message to the world: “set foot on any Greek island, or on the southernmost rocky prominence of Italy”, and you can “make your way unhindered to the flourishing nations of Western Europe”. Underpinning it is a basic refusal to accept that member states have different needs: northern ones benefit from an influx of cheap labour, but many of the migrants are trapped in Italy, which has 40% youth unemployment. To save the EU, free movement will have to be restricted. The only question is how organised or chaotic that process is going to be.  (Janet Daley,The Sunday Telegraph).

Of course, the above is written by a journalist on a reliably right- wing  paper with a bias towards Brexit.   Nice remarks about the EU are not plentiful in the Telegraph.  However,  this is a very fraught subject.  What  she writes is valid, especially for stressed countries like Greece and Turkey, which have taken the brunt of migration from Syria.  But if Northern countries want cheap labour so badly, why are migrants trapped in Italy?  The reason is political, not economic – the resentment caused in Germany, Sweden etc by too many migrants applesring too quickly.

Could the EU survive without freedom of movement?  Why can’t you have a free trade area or a customs union and still restrict movement of labour?  The answer is that you could, but free movement of services, goods, capital and labour are sacrosanct in Brussels, which wants a level playing field in standards , work rules etc, but also yearns for political union from the Atlantic to the borders of Russia.   This sounds like an empire in all but name, and many people object to losing their national identity. Some sort of compromise probably needs to be negotiated if the EU isn’t going to succumb to right- wing political parties fed up with freedom of movement.