Free movement of labour in the EU-27[fr][de] 

In an attempt to address the complex implications of the EU's 2004 and 2007 enlargements, several member states from the EU-15 introduced 'transitional restrictions' on the movement of labour forces from the new member states.

Free movement of workers is a fundamental right in the EU. So the curbs can be maintained for a maximum of seven years - until May 2011 in the case of workers from the eight countries that joined in 2004, and until 2014 in the case of workers from Bulgaria and Romania. 

Free movement of persons is one of the fundamental freedoms guaranteed by Community law (Article 39 of the EC Treaty ) and is also an essential element of European citizenship.

Community rules on free movement of workers also apply to member states of the European Economic Area (i.e. to Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway). The relevant rights are complemented by a system for the co-ordination of social security schemes and by a system to ensure the mutual recognition of diplomas. 

The Accession Treaty allows for the introduction of "transitional measures". Commonly referred to in EU circles as the '2+3+2-year arrangement', this scheme obliged the member states to declare themselves in May 2006, and again in May 2009, on whether they would open up their labour markets for workers from the EU-8 (Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Slovenia) or keep restrictions in place. The restrictions will definitely end on 30 April 2011. A similar '2+3+2' scheme is in place with respect to workers from Romania and Bulgaria, which joined the EU on 1 January 2007. 

The Commission’s February 2006 report said that very few citizens from the new member states were actually moving to the EU-15 countries. According to the report, EU-10 citizens represented less than one percent of the working age population in all old EU member states except Austria (1.4%) and Ireland (3.8%). 

The policies relating to the free movement of workers from the EU-8 within the EU-15 states could be classified into four categories: 

• Keeping the restrictions in place after May 2009: Austria and Germany.
• Lifting the restrictions gradually, between 2006 and 2009: Belgium, Denmark, France, Luxembourg, The Netherlands.
• Keeping labour markets open / removing restrictions: Finland, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom. 

With respect to the 1 January 2007 enlargement, which brought Romania and Bulgaria into the EU, many former EU member states are more reluctant to open their labour markets. All EU-15 countries with the exception of Sweden and Finland decided to restrict Bulgarians' and Romanians' access to their labour market. 

Italy considers allowing Romanians an Bulgarians in once a European agreement on combating organised crime is found, and France announced that it will inlcude workers from the two countries into its schme of sectorial barrier-lifting. 

All the EU-10 decided to open their labour markets - with the exception of Malta, which contricts access, and of Hungary, which imposes some conditions. 

Austria

Citing "pessimistic" labour market forecasts, Vienna continues applying the restrictions for at least until 2009. "We do not have particularly high levels of unemployment, but the long-term forecast is not good," Austrian Labour Minister Martin Bartenstein said. Workers from the 10 former communist states have to apply for work permits. There are also curbs on employers posting workers to Austria in certain sectors. 

Belgium

Belgium decided to open its labour market to citizens of the eight East European EU countries of the 2004 enlargement from 1 May 2009. A few months beforehand, the country made it easier to get work permits in areas of the economy where jobs are hard to fill. Nevertheless, Bulgarians and Romanians must continue to apply for work permits until 2011. 

Denmark 

Denmark decided to open its labour market to citizens of the ten East European EU countries from 1 May 2009. Denmark is the 12th country in the EU to abolish such restrictions.

Finland

Finland lifted all restrictions on workers from the eight 2004 entrants on 1 May 2006. Previously, citizens of the new member states could get a job without a work permit only if the employment office decided there was no-one else available on the Finnish labour market. It has imposed no restrictions on workers from Bulgaria and Romania. 

France 

In early March 2006, France's government decided on a "step-by-step controlled lifting of the restrictions" on the free movement of labour from the EU-8 countries. The partial opening of the French labour market started with sectors where labour was in short supply (e.g. social and health care, hotels and catering, transport and construction). In December 2006, France decided to include Romanian and Bulgarian workers in the scheme on the same terms.

But on 1 July 2008 – a year earlier than planned – France opened its labour market to workers from the 2004 accession countries. That move coincided with France assuming the EU's six-month rotating presidency.

Workers from Bulgaria and Romania are eligible for fast-track work permits if they apply for any of a list of 62 jobs where recruitment is a problem. 

Germany 

The government of Germany decided to continue the transition period for EU-8 workers until 2009. On 22 October 2006, the country also decided to curb Bulgarian and Romanian workers' access to its labour market. One main reason cited by Berlin is high unemployment, especially in the federal states bordering the Czech Republic and Poland.

However, Germany issued 500,000 of these permits between 2004 and 2006. "In practice Germany has given as many people work as other big countries," EU Employment Commissioner Vladimir Špidla said in May 2006.

On 25 April 2008, the Conservative-Social Democrat government majority said it aimed at maintaining barriers for Central and Eastern European workers until 2011. The Commission responded by recalling that in order to maintain the transitory measures beyond 2009, Germany must prove "severe distortions of its labour market, beyond mere unemployment".

Greece

Greece dropped all restrictions on 2004 entrants as of 1 May 2006. It introduced some restrictions on workers from Bulgaria and Romania, but lifted them in January 2009.

Ireland

Ireland was one of three countries which opened up its labour markets to all new member states immediately in 2004.

However, arguing that following the UK's decision to impose transitional measures on workers from Bulgaria and Romania, it did not really have a choice, Ireland imposed similar measures, albeit without any exceptions, on the same day.

An influx of an estimated 200,000 workers from Central Europe came to Ireland between 2004 and 2006.

Italy 

In July 2006, two months after it was sworn in, Italy's centre-left governemnt, led by former Commission President Romano Prodi, took the decision to end the transitory measures.

Italy introduced restrictions on some categories of workers from Bulgaria and Romania. But work permits are not required in agriculture, hotel and tourism, domestic work, care services, construction, engineering, managerial and high-skilled work.

Luxembourg

In November 2007, Luxembourg lifted restrictions for workers from the 2004 accession countries.

Luxembourg simplified work permit procedures for Bulgarian and Romanian workers in agriculture, hotel and catering and certain areas of finance. 

The Netherlands 

As a first step to slowly phase out restrictions, the Dutch governement opened, on 17 September 2006, 16 sectors of its labour market to workers from the EU-8 states. The decision concerned sectors where workers are scarce or where there has been a high percentage of illegal workers. 

In a letter to the Dutch Parliament, Secretary of State H.A.L van Hoof wrote that the country will consecutively drop barriers also in other sectors, adding that once all sectors have been liberalised, the country might even drop its work permit scheme altogether.

The Dutch government lifted all restrictions on 1 May 2007 for workers from the 2004 accession countries.

For workers from Bulgaria and Romania, a work permit will be issued whenever there are no suitable workers available in the Netherlands or other EU member states and the employer can fulfil the norms for working conditions and accommodation.

Portugal and Spain

Portugal and Spain dropped all restrictions on workers from the 2004 entrants on 1 May 2006. Between 2004 and 2006, Portugal imposed a 6,500 annual limit on immigrant workers of all nationalities.

Portugal and Spain operated a work permit system for workers from Bulgaria and Romania for the first two years after their accession, but dropped that requirement in January 2009.

Sweden

Sweden was one of the three countries, along with the UK and Ireland, which chose to apply no restrictions to workers from the new EU member states. It has taken the same liberal line with regard to workers from Bulgaria and Romania. 

United Kingdom

The country was, toghether with Sweden and Ireland, the only one not to impose transitional measures on EU-8 workers in the first place. Its open-borders policy led to an estimated labour immigration of 450,000 to 600,000 within the two-and-a-half years following the May 2004 enlargement. This amounts to about 30 times the number previously expected. 

Despite the undoubtedly positive impact that the immigration of EU-8 workers has had on the British economy, the UK government decided on 24 October 2006 not to apply a similarly liberal scheme to Romanian and Bulgarian job-seekers (See EurActiv 25/10/06). 

Under the scheme announced, only a few experts and 20,000 unskilled workers for the food processing and agriculture industries were allowed into Britain. Self-employed people from Bulgaria and Romania were the only others allowed to work in the UK. 

Next enlargement wave: Turkey in focus

Turkey is home to 70 million people. If and when it becomes a member of the EU, the country will be second only to Germany in terms of the size of its population. Turkey itself has almost the same number of citizens as the ten new member states combined. The labour market implications of the EU's current enlargement, along with the conclusions reached from the current transition period, will certainly have a bearing on the way the EU will function at 28+ members.

The articles below analyse likely scenarios for Turkey's labour market in the context of the country's prospective EU membership:

• Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS): Growth and immigration scenarios for Turkey and the EU (December 2004)
• Migration Information Source:    Turkey: A Transformation from Emigration to Immigration (November 2003)
• International Herald Tribune:  In enlarged EU, a need for immigration (May 2004)
• CPB Netherlands' Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis:  Assessing the economic implications of Turkish accession to the EU (March 2004)  

The European Citizen Action Service (ECAS) was among the first to compile an overview of the 'transition measures' introduced by the national governments. ECAS has also drafted a series of recommendations to both the European institutions and national governments.

Former Competition Commissioner Mario Monti, now chairman of ECAS, has said that transitional restrictions should be "phased out as soon as possible". “There has been no influx to justify them and the unexpected proliferation of complex national quotas and qualitative restrictions undermines the Lisbon strategy for flexible markets and a skilled, mobile labour force," he said.

The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) has said that the migratory impact of enlargement is likely to be "less dramatic" than projected. In fact, IOM believes that the new member states themselves are bound to become the main targets for immigrants, considering these countries' "increased economic convergence, growth and improved living standards".

"Free movement of workers […] has not had disruptive effects on the EU-15 labour market. Quite the contrary - individual countries, and Europe as a whole, have benefited from it," Employment Commissioner Vladimir Spidla has said. In Spidla’s opinion, free movement of labour is more important than any of the other EU freedoms.

"Free movement of workers is one of the main pillars of the EU free market. Restrictions are incompatible with the Lisbon strategy. That's why we have argued for full free movement since the beginning of accession talks. This is the only way to achieve a competitive and innovative Europe," Czech Deputy Foreign Minister Vladimir Müller has said. 

The Commission’s February report “does not take into account the effect of transition periods,” said Germany’s State Secretary for Employment Gerd Andres. “Also the geographical position is very different for Germany and Austria than it is for France or the UK.”