How is sport connecting job seekers and recruiters across EU borders? New initiatives are looking beyond résumés to help cross-border workers find jobs.
In Strasbourg, a unique cross-border recruitment event brings together employers and jobseekers from France and Germany – through sport.
The organisers of the event “Allez-hop zum Job” say activities like sports and games reveal more about a person’s character than any résumé. That’s why they developed this unusual job-dating event, in one of the European regions with the largest number of cross-border workers.
Across the European Union, there are around 1.8 million cross-border workers, who live in one EU Member State and commute daily to work in another.
To help them navigate differences in administration, taxation, social security, and labour rights, the EU created the European Employment Services, or EURES, which helps people find jobs and country-specific information.
Other EU tools that support worker mobility include Europass, a multilingual platform offering free digital services, which is available in over 30 languages.
Looking ahead, the European Commission plans to expand these efforts. In 2026, it will present a Fair Labour Mobility Package designed to strengthen the European Labour Authority, combat worker exploitation, and launch new instruments such as a European Social Security Pass for faster cross-border verification of social security rights. The initiative will also introduce a Skills Portability Initiative to make qualifications and competences more transparent and comparable across Member States.