EU's Closed Doors
October 25, 2006
British Home Secretary John Reid was among the first to rule out "an automatic right" to work for people in low-skilled of unskilled jobs, adding that Britain would take in as many skilled workers as it needed.
The Irish Employment Minister Micheal Martin, also speaking at said Bulgarians and Romanians will be required to have work permits before getting jobs after they enter the bloc on Jan.1.
The British and Irish stances contrast starkly with their decision to adopt an "open door" policy when eight other former communist states were among 10 nations to join the bloc in May 2004.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair's administration had predicted that up to 13,000 people from eastern Europe would arrive in Britain after the 2004 enlargement but so far up to 600,000 have turned up.
Germany extends worker restrictions
Germany, the biggest EU member, does not however appear to be dusting off the welcome mat.
In March, Berlin decided to extend to 2009 the restrictions on eastern European EU workers which had been due to expire last May.
A commission spokeswoman made its position clear on Tuesday, noting that new countries had brought economic benefits to the 25-member bloc.
"We regret if member states who have opened for the 10 are not going to open for Romania and Bulgaria," said Katharina Von Schnurbein, the EU executive's spokeswoman for employment and social affairs.
"The economic implications have been very positive in the first two years after the last enlargement," she said. "We think that this is definitely a positive that should be taken into account."
Poland, Scandinavia willing to open doors
However it wasn't all bad news for the open-access supporters.
Poland, the biggest newcomer in 2004, announced that it would open its jobs market to workers from all European Union member states as well as those from Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway,
"We hope that our position will be an impetus to countries that are still hesitating," Deputy Labor Minister Kazimierz Kuberski said.
Fellow newcomers Slovakia, Estonia, and Latvia, plus the more-established Finland, have all promised to allow unfettered access to the new arrivals next year.
Sweden granted full access to new EU workers in 2004, and Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt has indicated he is unlikely to introduce tighter restrictions for Romania and Bulgaria.
Other EU states still on the fence
Many other member states have yet to announce a decision on the matter, with some adopting a wait-and-see approach as fellow EU members line up in the free-access or restrictions camps.
"It's not a decision that we want to take alone," said an Italian foreign ministry spokesman, "We are waiting to see what recommendations Brussels has on the question," he told AFP.
Other core EU states such as Belgium, France, the Netherlands and Spain are also in the "don't know" or at least the "haven't said" camps.
Hundreds of thousands of workers from Romania and Bulgaria, which will become the EU's poorest members, crossed EU borders after the fall of the communist bloc in the late 1980s, entering illegally but hoping to later go legal.