The European Union need not fear mass migration from the 10 countries that will join the bloc in May and stands to benefit from those people that do move, an EU agency said this morning.
The assurance by the European Training Foundation (ETF) comes the month after both the Republic of Ireland and Britain moved closer into line with most other EU states, which have put up barriers to migrants from the mostly former communist countries joining the bloc on May 1st.
The Turin-based foundation said although unemployment was high in many of the states set to join the EU, economic growth and public investment in education had been considerably higher than in the EU's current 15 member states.
Foreign direct investment in these countries was also likely to rise further and would be another factor arguing against mass migration from the region.
Peter de Rooij, director of the ETF, said: "A recent study shows that because migration will be largely limited to single, well-educated young people, the current EU member states stand to benefit from the expected labour flows."
The 10 countries that will join the EU have a combined population of about 75 million people, or a fifth of the number of people living in the EU's current borders.
The ETF study showed the percentage of people who had completed at least upper secondary education by the age of 22 was about 90 per cent in acceding countries in 2002, compared with just over 75 per cent in the current EU.
But the report did point out that joblessness was a concern in the acceding countries. "The issue of greatest concern is the very high - and until recently, rising - level of unemployment in some countries," it said, adding that the problem was particularly severe in Poland.