SPAIN: Finland and Spain have agreed to lift working restrictions on people from the eight former communist states in eastern Europe.
The two countries said yesterday they would not seek to renew a law that placed temporary curbs on east European workers until May 1st, 2006.
Finland also said it had no plans to introduce curbs on the freedom of movement of workers from Bulgaria and Romania when they join the EU in 2007 or 2008.
"I think it is the basic right in the EU that labour can move from one country to another," said Finnish minister for labour Tarja Filatov. She indicated that she hoped other EU countries would lift their restrictions on labour from eastern Europe this year.
Most EU states opened their labour markets to workers from Cyprus and Malta when they joined the EU in May 2004. But, fearing a deluge of foreign workers after enlargement in 2004, 12 of the 15 "old" EU states placed transitional restrictions on workers from eastern Europe. Just three - Ireland, Sweden and Britain - opened their labour markets to workers from the eastern EU member states.
At a briefing in Brussels yesterday, Ms Filatov urged other states to follow Finland's lead. Portugal and Greece are also considering relaxing restrictions on workers from eastern Europe, but many of Europe's biggest states are believed to be preparing new laws to extend the transitional restrictions for another two years from May 1st.
Germany, Austria, France, Belgium and Denmark all want to keep some form of restriction. Their reticence to open their labour markets has provoked anger from new EU states, which complain they are being treated as second-class citizens.
Poland has been among the most outspoken on the issue and Spanish prime minister José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero used a visit of his Polish counterpart Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz to announce the end of the curbs.
"We are convinced that allowing workers to move freely through the EU will be very positive for the economy and for development," said Mr Zapatero. "Our experience when we entered the EU, and the experience of Sweden and Britain on this labour issue, is that people's fears are eventually dissipated by the facts."
Ms Filatov estimated that a couple of thousand workers would travel to Finland, most of them from its Baltic neighbour, Estonia.