Brussels, 28/03/2006 (Agence Europe) - On 20 March the Employment Committee at the European Parliament adopted the own initiative report of Csaba Öry (EPP-ED, Hungary) on the transitional measures restricting the free movement of workers on the labour markets of the EU. Therefore MEPs: called for the abolition of the transitional measures applied to limit the access of workers from the eight new Member States of Central Europe to the labour markets of older Member States; denounce the situation whereby long stay residents in third countries benefit in certain cases from residency rights and rights to access the labour markets of the EU15 more than do citizens who joined the EU in May 2004; deplores measures based on discrimination between nationals from old and new Member States, which are still in force in some EU countries, notably those concerning access to welfare provision, and calls for Member States to get rid of these measures; requests Member States to guarantee the preference law stipulated in the “status quo clause” in the accession treaty so that nationals from new Member States do not have to confront restrictions that are more severe than before the signing of the treaty; calls on the Commission and Member States to ensure scrupulous application of labour law, so that equal treatment is ensured between all workers in the EU and that fair competition between companies is guaranteed to prevent social dumping.
The report will be discussed at the plenary in Strasbourg on 4 April
Ireland, the United Kingdom and Sweden have never applied restrictions on free movement of workers from the East. Finland, Spain, Portugal and the Netherlands recently announced that they would lift their restrictions and that France would do this “gradually and in a controlled manner”. Austria, Germany, Belgium and Denmark have announced that they will keep theirs for three years. The old Member States have until 30 April 2006 to notify their decisions on whether they are maintaining these restrictions.