Fears of migrant influx should be quelled

The Government should move to quell fears of an influx of migrant workers and benefit claimants from Eastern Europe when the EU expands this year, Mr Wim Kok, chairman of the European Employment Task Force and former Dutch prime minister, told a conference in Dublin yesterday.

Trade unions and employers must also play their part, assuaging worries that economic migrants will overrun the EU, according to Mr Kok.

"We should not forget that enlargement was the shared wish of all member-states, old and new," he said.

"Governments, but in my view also trade unions and employers, should do their best to take away fears that may live among the population.

"It is also their responsibility to ensure that the new EU citizens can feel really welcome," Mr Kok added.

His intervention came in the week that the Government confirmed migrants from the accession states would not be able to immediately claim social welfare payments.

The Republic had been the only member-state not to impose such a restriction.

Europe risks losing ground not only to the United States but to the emerging economies of China and the rest of Asia unless worker productivity increases drastically, Mr Kok said.

Productivity growth in the EU had slumped to half the US average over the past five years, while economic expansion had stagnated and unemployment risen, he said.

Member-states can hope to keep pace with other leading economies only through embracing modern business models, with their emphasis on skills and innovation, according to Mr Kok.

"Globalisation and worldwide economic competition are increasingly affecting the way Europeans live and work.

"Europe needs to become more outward looking, recognising the benefits of increased competition and co-operative trade with the rest of the world," he said.

A rapidly ageing population posed a further threat to the Lisbon Strategy - the EU's pledge to raise productivity to US levels, said Mr Kok.

"We should realise that ageing is not a problem of the future. It is already happening," he said.

Adaptability must become the watchword as Europe faces the future, said Mr Frank Fahey, Minister of State at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, who was speaking in an earlier address to the EU Presidency Conference on Adaptability and Adjustment to Change in the Workplace.

"At Lisbon in 2000, we set ourselves an ambitious target - becoming the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world by 2010," he said.

"If we are to meet this target, our workplace must be geared for constant change and innovation," Mr Fahey said.

"All of the people involved - employers, employees, policy makers and social partners - need to create a shared understanding of what needs to be done, particularly at the level of the workplace."