EU workers still barred from richest countries

Key European countries have opted to keep their doors firmly closed to workers from the newest EU member states, it was confirmed today.

France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Austria are among those not applying the Union’s open-border policy yet to job-hunters from the poorest countries, which joined the EU two years ago today.

The move reflects growing concern about the economic impact on domestic workers of allowing unrestricted access across borders to relatively cheap labour from eastern and central Europe.

Germany and Austria in particular insist they would face an unsustainable influx of migrant workers from Poland, Hungary and elsewhere if they fully applied the EU’s laws on the free movement of workers.

Only the UK, Ireland and Sweden opened up their employment markets from May 1 2004, when 10 new member states joined. The three governments insisted that doing so was part of the promise of extending EU membership into the former communist bloc.

The other dozen “old” member states took the option of a temporary two-year transition period to avoid sharp economic shocks from immediate exposure to a potential flood of cheap labour.

Today, as that transition period expires, only four more countries – Greece, Portugal, Spain and Finland – have chosen to open their borders.

The other eight, including the largest economies and the wealthiest countries, are taking up the option of maintaining full or partial restrictions until 2009, or until at least next year in the case of the Netherlands.

France, Luxembourg and Belgium say they are easing procedures for admitting workers from the new member states into some sectors, enabling the European Commission to hail “a big step forward“.

But the situation is still seen as undermining one of the basic principles of the EU, risking the creation of a two-tier European Union.

Austria and Germany insist that they are protecting domestic markets until economic standards rise in the neighbouring new member states and remove the danger of being overrun by a flood of cheap labour.

EU Employment Commissioner Vladimir Spidla said the fact that some were now making concessions was a positive. He said: “I am convinced that this move will be to the great benefit of European workers and economy alike.

“It will give a strong impetus to those member states that have kept restrictions and I hope that they will gradually lift restrictions in the coming years.”