Free movement of labour in the enlarged EU

"Nearly two years after the entry of 10 new Eastern European countries into the Union, Europeans still haven't finished with the scare stories over the real or imagined knock-on effects of enlargement," notes  editorial writer Françoise Crouïgneau. "However hard the Commission stresses its positive findings based on almost two years of observation and points out the relatively small number of Eastern European workers in the overall workforce ..., however much sociologists remind us that we are talking mostly about workers with special skills, or those willing to do jobs no one else wants ..., the French remain uneasy". Politicians "cannot be held solely responsible for the discredit cast upon enlargment and European construction: the Commission, though often an easy scapegoat for governments, is not beyond all reproach. The poorly-presented Bolkestein directive is the most flagrant example of this."

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