EU candidate nations expressed dismay yesterday at a Brussels proposal to limit their workers' rights to seek jobs in the EU for up to seven years, some saying it was hypocritical and discriminatory.
The harshest criticism of the plan, announced by the European Commission on Wednesday, came from Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary, likely to join the EU within the next few years.
The transition period has been demanded notably by Germany and Austria, which fear an influx of cheap labour across their borders when the first new EU member-states join.
"This decision appears to be discriminatory and hypocritical," said Mr Lubomir Zaoralek, head of the foreign affairs committee in Prague's parliament. "I am convinced that if our position in the EU is to be equal and honest it is not possible to limit a right as fundamental as freedom of movement," he said. The EU Enlargement Commissioner, Mr Gunter Verheugen, proposed on Wednesday a "general transition period" of five years from the date of accession, with an option to apply labour restrictions for a further two years after that.
The proposal, which will be presented to EU ministers in the next few weeks, gives EU states the right to block workers from eastern Europe, although they can also decide to open their labour markets completely.
"Of course we cannot agree with the remarks by Verheugen. They correspond almost exactly to the German and Austrian proposals, with a few modifications," said Poland's chief EU negotiator, Mr Jan Kulakowski.
In Budapest politicians were more circumspect, but made their opposition clear. "We cannot say that we agree," the Hungarian foreign ministry state secretary, Mr Peter Gottfried, said, adding that Brussels' proposed blanket restrictions were the wrong approach.
"Liberalisation [of the labour market] should be the starting point . . . from there it would be appropriate to study which countries should be subject to restrictive measures," he said.
Analysts mostly dismiss suggestions that EU states will be flooded by cheap labour when former communist countries begin joining. "I really do not see major masses setting on the road," said Mr Tamas Kiss of the Vienna-based International Centre for Migration Policy Development.
"The wave of migration from central and eastern Europe a few years ago has not materialised," said Mr Jean-Philippe Chauzy of the International Migration Organisation in Geneva.