EU governments should lift their restrictions on workers from the bloc's newer member states, since they bring more gain than pain, Employment Commissioner Vladimir Spidla said Tuesday, according to dpa. "Workers from new (EU) member states have satisfied demand in receiving countries ... without creating any major disruption to unemployment or to the salaries of native workers," Spidla said. And since the free movement of people is "a fundamental right", governments should "lift their restrictions as soon as possible," the commissioner said. Spidla made his comments while presenting a report showing that the EU's recent enlargement has not, as some had feared, led to a massive influx of Polish plumbers - a symbol of cheap labour - to the EU's 15 oldest and richest members (EU-15). The Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia, as well as Cyprus and Malta, all joined the EU in 2004, while Bulgaria and Romania followed in 2007. The commission's latest estimates show that the share of nationals from the 10 countries that joined in 2004 and who have decided to relocate elsewhere in the EU has risen from 0.2 per cent in 2003 to 0.5 per cent in 2007, with most of them heading to Britain or Ireland. The share of Bulgarians and Romanians now living in the EU-15, meanwhile, has increased from 0.2 per cent to 0.4 per cent over the same period, with most heading for Spain or Italy.
