The European Commission Wednesday referred Portugal to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) for breaching the rules regarding the freedom of movement of workers. The Commission claimed that Portueuse legislation restricts the work of civil engineers, infringing upon their freedom of movement, freedom of establishment and freedom to provide services and breaches directives on the recognition of professional qualifications.

The Portuguese legislation at issue provides workers the required rights under EU Directive 2005/36/EC, but only if the workers fulfill restrictive conditions. However, the freedom to move allows workers with professional qualifications to work throughout different EU member states while “guaranteeing an improved level of protection for consumers and citizens.” The Commission argues that Portugal’s restrictive conditions “go beyond EU rules” and extend to engineers who do not meet the new conditions, thus restricting their freedom of movement.

Portuguese authorities have not addressed the issues raised by the Commission in both 2019 and 2020, and thus the commission brought this action against the country before the CJEU.

The Commission also brought a separate action against Portugal before the CJEU on Wednesday regarding the protection of workers against the dangers of exposure to isotonic radiation. In that case, the Commission argued that Portugal failed to adopt the protections for workers set out in the EU’s revised Basic Safety Standards Directive.