German Chancellor proposes 7 year waiting list for Polish workers in EU

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder announced yesterday in Berlin, that he is going to propose to other European Union (EU) countries introduction of a seven year transition period for new members, before EU is to open its labor market to them. However, Eneko Landebru, deputy director for EU expansion at the European Commission (EC), said German and Austrian fears of an influx of cheap Eastern labor are exaggerated. The EC's stance on access to labor markets has always been favorable to EU candidates. Schroeder stressed that flexibility in making these decisions is needed, so as to allow Western states to bring in Eastern labor to fill job vacancies in some sectors. Some experts say that fears of mass migration from the East are similar to those that preceded the EU entry of relatively poor Greece, Spain and Portugal, which had seven or eight year transition periods before their citizens were granted full access to EU labor markets. However, those transition periods were later shortened. (Puls Biznesu, p.11, Reuters) A.D.