"I have the impression that borders are reappearing"

The European administrative machinery often seems far removed from the concerns of ordinary citizens. Yet the founding principles of European integration have a direct impact on our daily lives. "As soon as the European Community was created in 1958, one of the first regulations was aimed at coordinating social security schemes in the Member States", explains Nicole Kerschen, honorary researcher at the Centre national de recherche scientifique (CNRS, France) and expert for Luxembourg within the MoveS network dedicated to worker mobility and the coordination of social security schemes. "At the time, there were plans to set up a European social security system, but in the end the decision was taken to leave the national systems in place while coordinating them so that workers could move freely. The important point was that social security should not be a brake on the free movement of workers – nor should it encourage dumping."