This study analyzes the impact that the COVID-19 has had on the free movement of people and the control of both internal and external borders in the EU, at a particularly delicate time, coinciding with the opening of the Conference on the future of the EU. The hypothesis is that the legal framework of free movement both in International Law and in European Law is not suitable to adopt the restrictions that the fight against the pandemic requires. This fact, in addition that public health and the preservation of national security are the competences of the Members States, have altered the essence and limits of a key right for the present and the future of the process of European integration. Therefore, the normative heritage developed by the EU in this matter must be preserve against these and other restrictive drifts, avoiding taking its irreversibility for granted. © 2020 Departamento de Literatura Española-Universidad de Sevilla. All rights reserved.