labour market access

The cross-border labour market of the Greater Region rests on a legal status that arises from a factual situation, requires no administrative act and belongs to citizens of the European Union. As shortages became simultaneous across all four territories, demand shifted towards third-country nationals, above all towards displaced Ukrainians, of whom 4.4 million hold temporary protection in the Union. For them the same employment is governed by a permission, not by a right. The Working Paper constitutes this category as a legal object in its own right, terms it permissioned cross-border work and examines it in Luxembourg, Germany, Belgium and France. Protection granted by one Member State opens only its own labour market; a neighbouring market requires a separate national authorisation. Luxembourg issued 321 such first authorisations in 2024. The evidence suggests that the procedure is a significant constraint, and that integration turns on the portability of access rights.