Zweden, Ierland en VK leggen geen beperkingen op aan arbeidsmigratie uit Oost-Europa (en)

A majority in the Swedish Parliament today (28 April) turned down a proposal from the ruling Social Democrat party to limit migrant workers from the new European Union member states.

The rejection means Sweden will be one of only three EU countries not limiting access to its labour markets for citizens from central and eastern Europe.

Ireland and the UK will also grant free access to their labour markets but intend to restrict access to social security schemes.

Today's vote is seen as a major defeat for Prime Minister Göran Persson.

He managed to get support neither from the left nor the right of the Parliament for his proposal.

Minister for migration and asylum policy Barbro Holmberg warned in the debate that the Swedish social security system would be at risk of exploitation and salaries could slump.

"The problem is that three Swedish child allowances corresponds to an average salary in many of the new EU countries", she said, according to Dagens Nyheter.

Workers will have to work ten hours a week to qualify for access to social security provisions.

MPs from both sides of the chamber blamed the Social Democrat government of hostility towards foreigners.

The Liberal party (Folkpartiet liberalerna) would have liked to see some sort of regulation, but thought the Social Democrat proposal went too far.

"It includes a number of regulations beyond the simple proposal, that we would have preferred, that one should be able to support oneself", MP Bo Könberg from the Liberal party said, according to Svenska Dagbladet.

The government had proposed that only those with a guaranteed full time job at a fair salary and somewhere to live would be given the permit to work in Sweden.