The Access of EU Citizens to the Public Service: A Comparative Analysis

Article 45 of the Treaty of the Functioning of the European Union sets the norm of free movement of workers in EU Member States. However, the same article sets in unequivocal terms in paragraph 4 an exclusion principle concerning the employment in the public service. During the past decades it has been underlined that the exception clause ought to be interpreted in a narrow sense. That is, restrictions on access to the public service should only apply to posts involving the exercise of public authority and the responsibility for safeguarding the general interests of the State or other public bodies. In the paper it is presented the way that a number of EU Member States have implemented the policy of open access to public service posts. The level of implementation of this rule could be used as an indication of the wider phenomenon of administrative convergence in the European level.