Objectives:
This article aims to determine if the restrictions on freedom of movement and residence in the European Union due to Covid-19 respect the core of this Human Right which is also one of the essential principles of the original European Communities.

Material and methods:
With this purpose we have analysed the measures adopted in different countries along Europe in relation with the pandemic expansion’s data. We analyse more deeply the Spanish restrictions due to the fact that these limitations are considered the toughest in the entire Schengen area, and there is a broad discussion on the legitimacy of the limitations imposed on these fundamental rights through the regulation of the management of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Results:
The results obtained lead us to know much better about the extent of the freedom of movement and residence in the European Union in crisis times, and the possibility of the reduction of its scope, depending on the circumstances.

Conclusions:
The discussion about the reduction of freedom of movement must be overcome putting the focus on its utility to protect life and health of people, if the measures of confinement are taken with proportionality and observing the principle of equal treatment between Member States’ citizens. These parameters leads us to conclude that the confinement measures were correctly adopted under the premise that the health and the life must be over all Fundamental Rights, since they are the material support of other Fundamental Rights and Freedoms. Despite this, in our opinion, some European guidelines could be adopted to harmonize the restrictions in the whole Schengen area with the purpose of stablishing some uniform criteria in all the Member States that could be useful as criteria to ponder the necessity of applying the restrictions on mobility in future cases.