The European Labour Mobility Congress 2026 opened with a clear and focused message from Stefan Schwarz, President of the European Labour Mobility Institute: today, when discussing the posting of workers, the key challenge is no longer the concept itself, but the barriers that make the cross-border provision of services unnecessarily difficult.
In his keynote, Stefan Schwarz pointed to a major shift in the European debate. Administrative obstacles to the posting of workers have now been recognised among the “Terrible Ten” barriers that most seriously undermine the competitiveness of the European economy.
In the presentation that followed his keynote, Stefan Schwarz, together with Marcin Kiełbasa, focused on how Poland is creating new barriers to the posting of workers in breach of EU law — through national legislation and administrative practices affecting both Polish exporters of services and service providers from other Member States.
The discussion was then continued in the plenary conversation with Mary Veronica Tovšak Pleterski from the European Commission, hosted by Marek Benio, bringing the institutional EU perspective on the future of the Single Market for services.
One point stood out throughout the Congress: restoring Europe’s competitiveness requires making it easier for services to move across borders by removing disproportionate administrative and regulatory barriers.
