Rules for construction workers key to deal on free movement

Date: 10/05/01

By Simon Taylor

GERMANY and Austria are insisting on controls on self-employed construction workers from central and eastern Europe in exchange for a deal allowing the free movement of labour from candidate countries.

EU diplomats said this week an agreement on labour rights could be reached soon provided Berlin and Vienna were allowed to include certain building trades workers in the package.

"If we get something on services everything else would fall into place," said one.

Granting labour rights to workers from incoming Union member states is one of the most controversial issues in the enlargement process.

Germany and Austria are worried that fears of a flood of cheap labour from the new states could stoke up nationalist opposition to expanding the Union.

An official said EU governments are close to accepting a five-year ban on workers from central and eastern Europe taking up jobs in the existing member states.

This is provided individual countries are free to change their national laws in response to future developments on their domestic labour markets.

The Commission has proposed a five-year ban with the option to extend this by a further two years.

It also wants a built-in review after two years, when all the restrictions could be scrapped. Member states would only be able to modify the rules by unanimity.

But the UK is leading the call for more flexibility, saying the unanimity requirement would make it impossible for states to adjust their policies if enlargement does not lead to a flood of cheap labour.

EU diplomats said the key point for Germany and Austria was to convince their electorates that they could protect their labour markets for seven years without being forced by other member states to bring down their safeguards.

"If you cannot show that you can organise your own labour market for seven years support for enlargement is much lower," said one.

Instead of insisting on unanimity, member states would be able to adapt their own labour market rules in response to local needs.

This would allow Germany and Austria to keep out workers from specific border countries while allowing distant states like Ireland and Portugal to drop restrictions on migrant workers from eastern Europe.

But Berlin and Vienna are insisting on the right to impose restrictions on self-employed construction workers to ensure that they cannot circumvent the rules on permanent workers.

Germany and Austria have suggested restricting the number of permits for such workers to operate.

But the Commission argues that the concession would deny citizens in future member states two key EU freedoms: the free movement of workers and services.

The Swedish presidency is keen to get a political agreement on the question by next week's meeting of foreign ministers.

But diplomats fear that Madrid and Paris could still block an agreement unless they get reassurances about the implications of enlargement on regional aid and farm support.

Spain and France are the biggest beneficiaries of each policy, respectively.

Germany and Austria are insisting on controls on self-employed construction workers from central and eastern Europe in exchange for a deal allowing the free movement of labour from candidate countries.