Home isn‘t where you‘re from, it‘s where you find light when all grows dark.
Pierce Brown
Probably the most important achievement of the European Union is the ability of all its citizens to move freely between all member states. And by free movement, it is meant not merely the movement in the “visa-free” sense, but the completely unrestricted right of residency, work, study, access to medical healthcare and social security systems, etc. No any other Union has ever accomplished such unconditional rights for all of its citizens.
Many of our clients, especially from countries located far from Europe, simply can’t realize how liberating these rights are. People find it quite logical that an American can freely choose to live in either New York or in Miami, located in two different states (US), because in a way these cities (as basically all cities in the USA) are more or less similar – same language, same President, same federal laws, same common history, same standards, same telephone code, same internet domain, same currency, etc.
At the same time it is much more difficult to comprehend that Europe, being so diverse, provides the same rights to all of its citizens as USA does, for example. It is hard to imagine that someone from Naples in Italy can move north and relocate without any formalities to Stockholm in Sweden. Or someone from Belgium can head south to sunny Greece and settle there as if he was in his own country. But this is precisely the beauty of the European Union – so diverse, yet so equal.
But the EU has achieved the ultimate level of freedom for its citizens. It doesn’t matter what EU nationality one holds. Each EU citizen – German, French or Bulgarian, can live and have access to all EU benefits in all EU member states (countries). Bulgarian citizen can choose to live in Paris, Rome, Berlin, Madrid or Brussels, the same as he would be living in Sofia or any other city EU-wide. This unique virtue of the EU passport makes it much more valuable than a mere document for worldwide visa-free travel.