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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Letters

Free movement is not an EU absolute

Theresa May with Angela Merkel and  Martin Schulz
Theresa May speaks with Angela Merkel and European parliament president Martin Schulz before a summit at the European council in Brussels. Photograph: Emmanuel Dunand/AFP/Getty Images

In your editorial (18 January) on Theresa May’s Brexit speech, you write that “migration control and the single market are incompatible”. A similar view has been voiced by several European leaders in recent weeks, but I am puzzled by the apparent general agreement on the implied absolutism. Article 45 of the Lisbon treaty states that the right to freedom of movement of workers is subject to limitations justified on grounds of public policy, public security or public health. Article 46(d) provides for the achievement of a balance supply and demand of labour. Why can’t these clauses be the basis of an agreement on controlled migration that does not throw out the baby with the bathwater of Brexit?
David Jones
Matlock, Derbyshire

• Has there been any survey and any evidence that the Visegrad economies have benefited from exporting many of the most enterprising and industrious of their populations to wealthier countries such as Germany and Great Britain?
David Fisher
Manchester

• Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com• Read more Guardian letters – click here to visit gu.com/letters

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