Call to drop EU migrant curbs

The European Commission says member states should drop restrictions on workers from the newest members in the light of evidence that the legendary Polish plumber and his colleagues have had a positive impact on the economies of their host countries.

The research, presented to the European Union parliament in Strasbourg on Tuesday, shows that free movement helps satisfy labour and skills shortages. The Commission quoted figures showing migrants from within the EU appeared to have boosted the bloc's aggregate gross domestic product by 0.28 per cent since 2004.

However, the report may do little to influence German and Austrian ministers, who have indicated they might prolong regulatory hurdles to labour migrants for as long as possible. The Commission says free movement is one of the fundamental freedoms guaranteed under its laws.

Vladimir Spidla, the EU employment, social affairs and equal opportunities commissioner, said countries needed to have good reasons to limit people's freedom of movement. "The treaty dictates that restrictions must be based on major disruption to the labour markets."

The workers reviewed by the report are from two separate blocs of EU accession countries: the "EU eight" group of the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Hungary, Slovenia and Slovakia, which joined in 2004, and the "EU two" of Bulgaria and Romania which joined in 2007. Member states must open their markets to the eight by 2011 and to all the new members in 2013.

Polish migrants were by far the most mobile in 2007, accounting for a quarter of all EU movers, followed by the Romanians who make up 19 per cent. Migrants from outside the EU outnumbered intra-European migrants by approximately two to one.

Mr Spidla said the migratory flows had a very positive effect. "Workers from new member states have satisfied demands in receiving countries without creating significant disruption to the labour markets and without having an impact on unemployment figures or the salary of native workers."

He also said the onset of recession meant there were unlikely to be further outflows from new members because mobile workers tended to go where the jobs were and leave when work became scarce. "In difficult economic times, we should not fear an inflow of migrant workers," said Mr Spidla. "We have already reached a ceiling with regard to migrant flows."

Member states must decide by the end of December if they want to maintain restrictions on workers from Bulgaria and Romania and by April 2009 for the remaining eight new EU states.