Het sluiten van nationale arbeidsmarkten voor Oost-Europeanen tot 2010 - EU-lidstaten moeten binnen vier weken beslissen (en)

With EU countries just four weeks away from having to decide whether to maintain restrictions on the free movement of workers for a further three years, some of the main players will meet today in Brussels to discuss the issue.

EU Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities, Vladimír Spidla i, will join representatives of 25 EU governments and national and European trade union and employer representatives (social partners) to discuss the projected decisions, as well as to look forward to how this second phase of restrictions will work.

Though some EU governments have already made clear they will no longer maintain restrictions on workers from eight New Member States (e.g. Finland, Spain, Portugal), others have yet to announce their decisions. This meeting will provide a final opportunity for all concerned to discuss their experiences of labour flows prior to the April 30 deadline. For the countries which have already indicated that they will maintain restrictions (eg Austria, Germany), the meeting provides an opportunity to look at how they will eventually phase in Community law (ie no restrictions).

Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities, Vladimír Spidla, said that the meeting would look forward to the time when all workers would be permitted to work unhindered throughout the EU. 'Free movement of all workers in the EU is our goal and we need to look ahead and plan for this reality. I welcome the news that several countries are dropping their restrictions for this second transitional period and I hope they will be joined by some more before the April 30 deadline,' he said.

The meeting will provide a platform for the social partners in each Member State to outline their positions. Social partners' views are particularly important as most EU States are closely involving them in the decision-making process for the second phase.

The Commission's report 'Report on the Functioning of Transitional Arrangements' on the free movement of workers, which it adopted on 8 February, will be officially presented to the representatives of EU governments and the social partners at the High Level Group. The meeting will also help provide input to the forthcoming General Affairs Council, on April 13, which will discuss the issue of free movement of workers.

Under the transitional arrangements, national measures restricting free movement of labour were imposed by 12 of the former EU15 Member States (all except Ireland, Sweden and the UK) on the eight new Eastern and Central European EU Member States in May 2004. Three new Member States (Hungary, Poland and Slovenia) imposed reciprocal restrictions on labour flows in the opposite direction. Decisions on whether to extend these restrictions for a further three years must be made before 1 May.

The report found that most countries had seen lower than expected labour flows from Central and Eastern Europe. New Member State (EU10) nationals represented less than 1% of the working age population in all countries except Austria (1,4% in 2005) and Ireland (3.8 % in 2005). Ireland has seen relatively the largest inflow of workers and the new workers had contributed to its impressive economic performance, helping alleviate skills bottlenecks.

http://europa.eu.int/comm/employment_social/emplweb/news/news_en.cfm?id=119