| Author (Person) | McLauchlin, Anna |
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| Series Title | European Voice |
| Series Details | Vol.12, No.6, 16.2.06 |
| Publication Date | 16/02/2006 |
| Content Type | News |
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By Anna McLauchlin Date: 16/02/06 The European Commission will launch its European Year of Workers' Mobility on Monday (20 February) in the face of bitter recrimination between EU states about restrictions on the movement of workers. The European Parliament was voting today (16 February) in Strasbourg on the services directive, after a debate dominated by fears about workers being posted across national borders. Trade unions lobbied MEPs to vote in favour of watering down a law intended to make it easier for service providers to operate throughout the EU. The services directive is strongly supported by governments of the new EU states, which also want to see an end to restrictions on the freedom of workers from the ten new member states to work in the rest of the EU. On Tuesday (14 February) MEPs backed a report calling for these restrictions to be dropped after April. The countries of the 'old' EU15 that imposed restrictions - all but Ireland, the UK and Sweden - have to decide whether they will renew the measures which were originally introduced for two years. Finland, Spain and Portugal have already signalled that they will end their measures. Belgium, Denmark, France, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Greece and Italy are wavering. Germany and Austria are expected to maintain their restrictions unchanged. The Commission is launching the year of workers' mobility with a two-day conference in Brussels which will bring together EU lawmakers, trade unions, businesses, employment agencies and labour market experts to look at how the EU should encourage greater movement. "I expect a sense of realism and a solid appraisal of the situation, plus a discussion on what can be done to dismantle the barriers to mobility," said European Commissioner for Employment and Social Affairs Vladimir Spidla. At present, only 1.5% of Europeans live and work in a country other than their own, a percentage which has remained roughly unchanged for 30 years. "To reduce unemployment we need to do a better job of matching supply and demand and mobility is one way of achieving this," said Spidla. The conference will also launch a new web portal with direct access to all the job vacancies published by the public employment services, totalling a million job offers around Europe. Commenting on the failure to open up the internal borders of the EU, one frustrated diplomat from a new member state said: "They won't say it but it is really a Polish problem. The only thing that [the governments] could do is open their doors to everyone except Poland, but it is politically very difficult." He added: "Of course the new member states will be in the same position in a few years' time with Romania and Bulgaria." Article on the issue of workers' mobility in the European Union. The European Commission was to launch its European Year of Workers' Mobility on 20 February 2006 while a dispute was going on between Member States about restrictions on the movement of workers from the ten new Member States. On 14 February 2006 the European Parliament had backed a European Commission report of 8 February calling for these restrictions to be dropped after April 2006. |
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| Source Link | http://www.european-voice.com/ |
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| Subject Categories | Employment and Social Affairs, Internal Markets |
| Countries / Regions | Europe |
