By Chris Jones - 8th February 2006
Enlargement has had only a minor impact on labour markets and there is little evidence to support continued restrictions on migrant workers, according to the European commission.
Twelve of the ‘old’ member states imposed restrictions on workers from eight new member states in central and eastern Europe after enlargement in May 2004.
Only Sweden, Ireland and the UK allowed unfettered access to their labour markets. There are no restrictions on workers from Cyprus or Malta in any of the old member states.
But despite fears of a flood of low-cost labour and the arrival of so-called benefit tourists from the east, a commission report shows that there was only a small rise in the number of workers from the new member states throughout the EU15.
In the first three months of 2005, just 0.2 per cent of workers in the old EU came from new member states, the same as in the previous year.
In contrast, 2.1 per cent of the working age population came from other EU15 countries.
In fact, the commission’s data shows that the flow has been larger in the other direction – 0.4 per cent of the working population in the EU10 comes from the old member states.
It added that that immigration from outside the EU was far larger than migrant flows from within the bloc itself.
The EU executive said the figures showed that the restrictions imposed by 12 member states were disproportionate with the size of migrant worker flows.
“Flows into the UK and Sweden, which do not have restrictions for EU8 workers, are comparable to, if not lower than, those into countries with restrictions,” the commission’s report states.
The report adds that the countries with restrictions in place could be doing more harm than good, by pushing large numbers of workers onto the black market.
And evidence from the new member states shows that the exodus of workers seeking better paid jobs in the west simply failed to materialise.
“Since enlargement, unemployment rates in almost all [the EU8 countries] have dropped significantly,” the report states, adding that EU funding for the new member states had led to a rapid improvement in job creation there.
The commission’s report coincides with the second anniversary of enlargement, and the first deadline for member states to decide if they wish to keep their restrictions in place.
But despite its clear evidence, the commission has no power to force the 12 member states to lift their bans on voluntary workers – that decision remains with each national government.
Employment commissioner Vladimir Spidla has had to be content with recommending to the member states that they consider removing all labour barriers.
Nonetheless, most of the 12 have indicated a willingness to open their labour markets – albeit partially in some cases.
But Austria and Germany have both said they will keep their restrictions in place for a further three years to get their own high unemployment levels under control first.
The commission will publish another report in 2009, after which time national governments will have the option to extend the restrictions for a further two years.
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