By Peggy Corlin - 14th March 2006
France will lift barriers to free movement of new EU workers from May 1 - but only for jobs where there are labour shortages.
French prime minister Dominique de Villepin signalled on Monday that Paris was joining Spain, Portugal and Finland in easing restrictions on EU citizens from central and east Europe.
But controls dating from EU enlargement two years ago will remain tight as not all categories of workers will be let in.
Villepin announced “restriction lifting will concern certain priority jobs experiencing problems in recruitment”.
The targeted professions will be restaurant services, industrial maintenance, building and public works and health.
The announcement comes as Brussels has been urging some “old” member states to loosen migration policy.
A European commission report last month finding that, despite scare stories, EU enlargement has had only a minor or positive impact on labour markets.
France has decided to let in only workers that are required by French labour market, arguing the level of unemployment was too high in other sectors.
French reluctance to open widely its market to eastern workers might fuel anger of new member states already convinced no to be treated on the same footing than others.
Restrictions on migration of workers have been attacked in the European parliament – often by MEPs from the new EU.
The issue of mobility was raised during a Strasbourg plenary debate with justice commissioner Franco Fratini on Monday.
“Third country workers have better access to the labour markets of states applying transitional periods than their counterparts from the new member states” Hungarian Liberal MEP Istvan Szent-Ivanyi argued.
“Workers from the new member states are not even second-class workers, but third class workers”.
But other MEPs insisted that transitional arrangements restricting the movement of workers were needed.
“In Europe we have got 19 million unemployed workers and most of them are in the new member states, that’s where the worries originate,” said centre-right Austrian MEP Othmar Karas.
“Transitional arrangements allow us the possibility to act on the worries of our citizens.”
Germany and Austria have decided to keep their doors closed at least till May 2009, barriers to free movement must be lifted at the latest in 2011.
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