The Netherlands: The Dutch government has backed away from plans to remove its restrictions on workers from the former communist states in eastern Europe from next January.
Following a debate in the Dutch parliament this week, state secretary for social affairs Henk van Hoof said the government would tell the European Commission on May 1st that it plans to keep its restrictions on workers. The decision marks a U-turn for the cabinet, which indicated last month that it wanted to drop the restrictions.
It is also a blow to the commission, which has been lobbying for the 12 old EU member states that didn't open their labour markets fully after enlargement in May 2004 to remove the barriers on workers.
"The state secretary indicated in parliament yesterday that given the concerns expressed about the proposed measure, that the restrictions will remain," said a spokesman for the state secretary for social affairs Henk van Hoof.
In the two-day debate in parliament, the two biggest political parties in the Netherlands, the Christian Democrats and the Labour Party, had asked for further guarantees that an influx of foreign workers from states such as Poland would not undermine the working conditions of Dutch workers.
The government now plans to prepare a new report on measures to protect labour rates and conditions following the relaxation of restrictions on the freedom of movement of labour. It is possible that a deal with parliament later this year would enable the cabinet to remove the restrictions next January, but there are growing concerns about immigration in the Netherlands.
Currently, workers from the eight east European states that joined the EU on May 1st, 2004, can only come to work in the Netherlands if they can prove their jobs cannot be done by a Dutch person or a person from the other 14 original EU member states.
Next week the parliament and cabinet will debate whether the current quota system for workers from new member states can be removed in certain industrial sectors to offer more flexibility for employers.
The government has already proposed toughening up labour inspection to ensure that employers do not employ east European workers below the minimum monthly wage of €1,272, in an effort to persuade parliament to accept the removal of restrictions.
Meanwhile, several other EU states, including France, Greece and Luxembourg, have not yet signalled whether they will fully remove the restrictions on workers from eastern European EU states. All 12 old member states applying restrictions to workers from the new EU states must tell the commission by May 1st, 2006, of their intention.
Finland and Spain have already said they will lift the restrictions fully from January 1st, while Denmark plans to lift the restrictions gradually.
Belgium, Austria and Germany plan to retain the restrictions. Ireland, Sweden and Britain were the only three countries not to impose restrictions.