Ahern calls on EU states to open borders
Monday, 1 May 2006
The Taoiseach has called on eight EU member states to remove restrictions limiting the access that workers from the 10 new member States have to those counties.
Today, as a temporary transition period ended two years after 10 new states joined the bloc, four more EU states have decided to open up their borders.
Finland, Spain and Portugal and Greece now join Ireland, Britain and Sweden, which opened their labour markets to new members two years ago.
Among the eight countries opting to keep the restrictions are France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands.
Mr Ahern said the attitude of such countries was not helpful and was not part of the Community spirit.
Up until now only Ireland, Britain and Sweden had allowed unrestricted access to workers from the accession states. The ten new states joined the EU two years ago today.
Germany and Austria in particular have insisted that they would face an unsustainable influx of migrants from Poland and Hungary if they fully applied EU laws on the free movement of workers.
- Five Seven Live: Ilpo Salonen, a Helsinki-based BBC journalist, reports that Finland has decided to change its policy and allow new workers enter the country
- Five Seven Live: Tony Barber, of the Financial Times in Rome, says that there are hundreds of thousands of immigrants working in Italy
- Five Seven Live: The Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, tells Jonathan Clynch that it is a pity that other member states have not followed Ireland's example in relation to workers from central and eastern Europe
- Nine News: Jonathan Clynch reports that the Taoiseach was speaking at a ceremony to mark the second anniversary of the accession of the new states
- Six One News: Jonathan Clynch reports that the Taoiseach was speaking at a ceremony to mark the second anniversary of the accession of the new states
