EU: The EU's biggest new members have urged "old Europe" to join Ireland in throwing open labour markets to workers from every country in the 25-nation bloc.
Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic told older EU members that Britain, Sweden and Ireland had benefited from lifting restrictions on migrant workers from eastern Europe, and that the 12 other nations should follow suit on May 1st.
That date - two years after 10 new states joined the EU - is when countries such as France, Germany, Italy and Spain must decide whether to scrap restrictions on workers from new member states or extend them for up to five more years.
"The free circulation of labour, which is one of the four essential freedoms for the future of the EU, is very important for citizens of the new member countries," declared the Visegrad group, which comprises the four largest states that joined the EU at the same time as Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovenia, Cyprus and Malta.
Citizens of Cyprus and Malta are not subject to work restrictions that were implemented amid fears of an influx of poor workers from the old communist bloc.
Ahead of the first review of the rules at the end of April, Austria and Germany have suggested that they will not change policy now, while Finland and Spain appear ready to lift the restrictions. Others, such as Belgium, France, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, have not taken a clear public stance.
EU employment commissioner Vladimir Spidla is due to release a report tomorrow that suggests the worries of "old Europe" were unfounded.
"Since EU enlargement, the level of employment in Europe has been slowly rising and unemployment slowly declining," Mr Spidla insisted. "The trend is obvious." A draft of his report obtained by news agencies says the experiences of Ireland, Sweden and the UK encourage the scrapping of the regulations.