EU candidate countries have criticised a measure agreed this week that could restrict their citizens from working in member-states for up to seven years after they join.
Under the agreement, the EU wants an initial two-year period during which the current 15 members would apply existing national rules on Eastern European workers' access to local labour markets.
Thereafter, member states could either lift restrictions or continue applying them for three more years, with an option to extend for a further two years.
Negotiators from six candidate countries, Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Estonia, Slovenia and Malta, held talks with the EU in Brussels yesterday. The EU agreed a joint position on free movement of labour on Wednesday.
Mr Pavel Telicka, the Czech Republic's chief negotiator said: "I wonder if the Union [understands] the concerns of the citizens of the candidate countries."
Mr Telicka conceded that the proposal was more flexible than initial proposals by Germany and Austria which had asked for long transition periods due to fears of a large influx of cheap Eastern European labour after enlargement.
The Hungarian chief negotiator, Mr Endre Juhasz, said: "Politically it would be difficult to explain to the population that the borders are closed in Austria and Germany, but we are opening our borders. That is not feasible."
Mr Juhasz said his country could accept the EU position on certain conditions. It wanted indications that there would be substantial improvement of existing bilateral agreements with Germany and Austria on access for Hungarian workers to their labour markets.
Hungary wanted the 13 other current EU member-states to indicate they would liberalise existing rules. It also wanted the right to impose a "mirror system" which would curb access to work in Hungary for citizens from the current EU countries, he said.
Both Hungary and the Czech Republic voiced concerns about an annexe to the EU position, which allows Germany and Austria to ban workers in certain services from seeking jobs if it disrupts the local labour market.
The EU governments also agreed this week they could accept seven-year curbs on EU citizens buying agricultural and forestry land in the new member-states.
The Czech Republic yesterday provisionally closed negotiations on free movement of capital, pending clarifications on the rights of self-employed farmers to buy farmland in the country.
The EU has stated that it will be ready to accept the first new members by the start of 2003, although observers say 2004 is more realistic.