Brussels, 03/04/2001 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission will present, next 18 April in Council, its draft common position (DCP) by the EU for the accession negotiation with the candidate countries over the very delicate dossier of the free movement of persons (and, mainly, workers), announced, on Tuesday, the Commissioner responsible for enlargement, Gunter Verheugen. It is known that Germany and Austria are calling for a transition period of seven years after enlargement to restrain the free movement of persons from the future new candidate countries of Central and Eastern Europe, while the position of the candidates, at this stage, remains to say that this freedom ("one of the four fundamental freedoms of the internal market") should be granted with their accession.
In a speech that he made on Tuesday in Berlin, Mr Verheugen said he was confident that the Commission would support "his position" that foresees to establish a general transition period that would apply to all the candidates and cover all the Member States in the same manner (they are talking of 5 years), followed by an additional shorter period (they talk of 2 years) for the Member States that consider it necessary to extend the protection of their labour markets. During the whole of this transition period (thus 7 years, if the "5+2" model is followed), each present Member States will be free to decide, on the basis of its own legislation, to grant access (even unlimited) to its own labour market. Mr Verheugen reiterated the political support of the Commission in favour of an "intelligent and flexible" system of transition periods, as for lack of a "convincing" solution the problem to the free movement of persons, it will be impossible to gain the support of public opinion (in the present Member States, notably Germany and Austria) in favour of enlargement, said the Commissioner.