The New Frontiers of EU Mobility and Health Protection in the COVID-19 Era: A Protective Mechanism or a Paradigm Change?

Since the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 outbreak in February 2020, EU Member have been introducing mobility restrictions, also cross-border, and national public health measures, including requirements of vaccination, medical certificates, and testing at borders, to counter the pandemic. Some of the measures still apply in 2022. What does it mean for EU citizens and migrants? This question is of paramount theoretical and practical importance for the regulation of the EU Internal market, living of people in EU, and protection of their human and constitutional rights.

Accordingly, the key aim of the project is to understand how the Covid-19 pandemic has changed the free movements of persons and public health protection in EU from the legal standpoint? It is crucial to produce analytical knowledge and map these changes because they affect lives of hundreds of people living and moving in EU Member States, including in Poland. This is why, the research will focus on the appraisal of limitations of the right to move freely in the EU on grounds of public health and their influence on the protection of individual/collective right to health. The project will examine the laws which apply: relevant EU and national provisions, case-law and the standards of European Convention of Human Rights. It will further include a Polish national case-study on cross-border access to healthcare based on interviews with experts and representatives of national civil society.

The project scientific research results will offer a vital source for policy-making on fair public health regulation through a multi-level analysis of human rights’ significance.