13/05/2004 (Agence Europe) - MEP Werner Langen (CDU) criticises in a press release those who state that Europe's enlargement to the East will entail job losses and relocation because of the low salaries in new Member States. Mr Langen comments: "Those who wish to invest in Poland or in the Czech Republic or take advantage of the low incomes, like the German and European motor industry, have been doing so for some time" and "the industry brought the iron curtain down a long time ago". Mr Langen reproaches those who fuel such fears of exploiting EU enlargement to distract public opinion from their own structural problems. Mr Langen notes that the regions of the former Member States that have common borders with the new Member States have already had to face up to direct competition from the latter over the years. He notes, however, that the membership of the ten new Member States is among the solutions to this kind of problem, as it "reins in uncontrolled enlargement" towards Eastern Europe.