Magazine / Society / Migration / Debate | 25/01/2007

Free Movement for Workers in the EU

Every EU citizen has a right to work in all countries of the European Union. For memberstates that joined the EU in 2004 and 2007 however, there is a transitional period of up to seven years. Why?

Every EU citizen has a basic right to work in all countries of the European Union if he so desires. This right is codified in Article 18 of the EU Treaty. Since the EU expansion of 2004, however, the old EU countries are allowed to protect their job market from workers from new member states for a transitional period of up to seven years.

Limited free movement: only Sweden has opened its labour market to all EU citizens.
Photo: Photocase.com

What prompted the addition of transitional regulations was a fear within EU-15 countries that their job markets would be flooded with cheap labour from the new member states. The media contrived the caricature of the "Polish plumber" who – first in France and then in other countries of old Europe – stood for the itinerant worker who competes with locals for jobs.

Restrictions

With the EU expansion of 2004, most of the 15 states that already belonged to the EU decided to either open their job markets for new members after a transitional period – like Germany and Austria – or to open them only partially. In France, for example, workers from the new EU countries no longer need a work permit for 61 fields in which there is a need for workers. Only Great Britain, Ireland and Sweden opened their job markets completely and immediately.

Some countries saw a lull in the debate about freedom of movement for workers after these decisions were reached in 2004. In Germany, little notice was taken of the decision to apply transitional provisions to Romania and Bulgaria as of 2007. But increasingly, voices were heard in the media of the 2004 Eastern European member countries, complaining about second class membership in the EU, and urging that all restrictions be lifted.

Maglena Kuneva, who prepared the EU entry for her country, Bulgaria, told the Slovakian Sme on October 26, 2006, "To me in Bulgaria, the generosity of the British, Irish and Swedish vis-à-vis the ten latest accession countries provided an easy argument in favour of the EU. I expected that they would behave the same way toward us." But this time, Great Britain and Ireland also closed their job markets temporarily to Romanians and Bulgarians. Only Sweden continues to keep its job market open to all EU citizens.

Why does Great Britain fear workers from Romania and Bulgaria?

It was primarily for economic reasons that Great Britain opened its job market in 2004. Migrant workers, it was argued, fill the need for workers in areas where there is a constant lack; they boost the local economy and ultimately bring about the creation of new jobs.

"The debate took off in 2006. That was when numbers were published showing that more workers from the new EU countries had entered the country than expected," explained Tony Venables, director of the ECAS European Citizen Action Service in Brussels, talking with euro|topics. ECAS is an independent European association committed to European civil rights. Venables published a ECAS study on the freedom of movement for workers in the EU countries ("Who is still afraid of EU-Enlargement," September 2006).

According to the British Home Ministry, in the two years up to August 22, 2006, 447,000 workers from the new EU countries had registered in Great Britain.

"Clearly, they weren't well prepared for anything of that magnitude," says Venables. "True, the positive effect of migration on the economy was praised all round, but in the press, reports abounded about the exploitation of workers and poor social services." British tabloids in particular warned that Romanian and Bulgarian workers would flood the market as soon as these two countries became EU members in 2007. The Sun even foresaw a wave of "criminal immigrants."

"The government must respond to this debate," explained Venables, referring to the conclusion drawn by the British government in October 2006, that its policy of complete freedom of movement was no longer sustainable for Romanians and Bulgarians.

Swedish Openness

Sweden is the only country in the EU that enacted no transitional provisions after 2004, and stood by Romania and Bulgaria as well. In 2004, the then-Social Democratic minority government attempted to introduce limitations – they, too, were reacting to a "panic campaign steered by the media," as the Polish-Swedish journalist Maciej Zaremba, who lives in Sweden, explained to euro|topics. Zaremba works for the Swedish daily newspaper Dagens Nyheter which, in 2006, published his much-praised series of articles on Eastern European workers in Sweden, later reprinted in the Polish Gazeta Wyborcza.

In Sweden, the primary fear was that people from Eastern Europe would not come for jobs but rather to profit from the Swedish welfare state. The term "welfare tourism" heightened such fears. And yet the government could not get its request through parliament, and Sweden's job market remained open.

"That was a symbolic decision by parliament," says Zaremba. And he explained the fact that this did not change for Romania and Bulgaria either as follows: "The number of eastern European workers in Sweden is very low. There are only about 4,000 registered."

The Special Case of Germany

Germany introduced transitional provisions for the newly acceded EU states of 2004. The December 20, 2006 decision by the German cabinet to close the domestic job market to Romanians and Bulgarians, was barely reported on in the press. Despite the rule, Germany – according to the ECAS study – had about the same number of registered workers from Eastern European countries as Great Britain.

"Practice overrode the law," explained Joachim Fritz-Vannahme, in a conversation with euro|topics. He is the European Project Director for the Bertelsmann Foundation in Gütersloh and previously was Brussels correspondent for the German weekly, Die Zeit. "Many Poles come to work in Germany and then just go back home. In some fields it has proven to make a lot of sense, for example among health care workers or seasonal workers in agriculture. The free economy saw its chance and, in spite of that protective clause, procured permits for the needed workers."

A Call to Open Job Markets

In February 2006, the EU Commission analyzed its experience with eastward expansion. The total number of itinerant worker within the EU had remained quite low. In the countries that had opened their markets, workers from other EU countries had a positive effect on the economy; according to the EU Commission, there were few major problems. Thus the Commission recommended the unconditional opening of job markets in all EU countries.

Some countries such as Finland, Greece, Portugal and Spain followed through in 2006 and opened their job markets for the eight Eastern European countries that joined in 2004; a policy that now also benefits Romania and Bulgaria.

And most of the countries that joined in 2004, countries that themselves had suffered under the restrictions, have now opened their job markets to Romanians and Bulgarians: for example the Baltic countries, Poland and the Czech Republic. There, the migration of labourers into old Europe has led to a lack of workers in some fields. Only Hungary has enacted transitional provisions for specific fields.

Meike Dülffer

Meike Dülffer was an editor for euro|topics. She studied Slavic studies, Eastern European History and Politics. She trained as a journalist at Berliner Zeitung before ...
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