European Union citizens are able to travel, look for work, settle down and even retire wherever they like across the 27-member bloc and can phone without having to pay costly roaming charges.
Major political and economic issues aside, enabling these everyday activities to be taken for granted is perhaps the biggest achievement of the EU on behalf of its citizens. Here's a short list:
\- Passports are no longer needed. A valid identity card suffices for crossing internal borders and for visiting the non-EU countries Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland. And even that document does not normally need to be shown as you cross the border.
\- Driver's licences are acknowledged across the bloc.
\- The times when cross-border phone calls were expensive are long a thing of the past. The cost of a call is the same as within the user's home country. The same applies to text messages and data services, and to receiving calls, irrespective of where you are in the bloc.
\- There is free movement for workers right across the EU. Citizens can work in the country of their choice without the need for a work or residence permit.
\- EU universities are required to open their doors by offering equal opportunities to all potential students from member states. While entrance qualifications vary widely from university to university, being a citizen of another member state should not be a reason for exclusion.
\- Exchange programmes, such as Erasmus allow school pupils, students and apprentices to study and gain experience in member states other than their own.
\- Citizens can settle wherever they like within the bloc, whether to work, study or retire. Known as "freedom of movement," this is a core value of the EU. The right to exercise this value between the EU and the United Kingdom came to an end on December 31, 2020, and since then a visa has been needed to study or work in Britain.
\- For 20 countries, the need to change money and pay commission to the bank when crossing the border is a thing of the past. The European single currency, the euro, is the legal tender from Helsinki to Valletta, and from Lisbon to Nicosia.
\- Health insurance also applies across the EU. The European Health Insurance Card is valid throughout and is shown in many cases on the back of the national health insurance card. Urgent care is then provided under the same conditions and at the same cost as at home.