Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-03-13-Speech-1-170"
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"en.20060313.22.1-170"2
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".
Mr President, this year was designated the European Year of Workers’ Mobility. By 30 April, each Member State must decide whether they are going to open up their labour market or not. This decision will determine whether this year will actually be the year of workers’ mobility, or a parody of it. We cannot tolerate a situation where workers from new Member States continue to be second class, and in certain respects even third class players on the labour market.
The free movement of persons is one of the four fundamental freedoms, a fundamental idea of the European Union. In the course of the March summit, the European Heads of State or Government will discuss the Lisbon process. The Lisbon process is bound to fail if we do not create a unified and flexible labour market. And this cannot be achieved without the liberalisation and freedom of the labour market.
The Commission has recently published an assessment which showed very clearly that the fears and anxieties persisting in the old Member States are groundless. There have been fears, for a long time, of a massive influx of workforce into Great-Britain, the Republic of Ireland and Sweden, the three countries that have opened up their labour markets. This has not happened. The rate of unemployment has not increased in these countries, against all expectations.
On the other hand, ‘black work’ was reduced, public revenue increased, and the competitiveness of companies has improved. Illegal employment is still considerable in countries that continue to restrict their labour market. This has led the Commission to the unequivocal conclusion that the winners of this process have been the countries that have liberalised the movement of workforce from new Member States.
So far I have been talking about the fact that the second class citizens on the labour market are the citizens of the new Member States. However, since 23 January, they have actually become third class citizens in a certain respect, because this was the date when the Directive stating that the European Union shall grant the right to employment and residence to third country nationals who have been residing legally within the territory of the European Union for at least five years came into effect. We do not have any problems with this. But this means that even these nationals are in a more advantageous situation than the workers from new Member States.
This is why I ask the Commissioner: how does he envisage the rectification of this problem, how can it be ensured that workers from new Member States do not feel like third class citizens on the labour market? And at this point I would like to welcome the decision of Finland, Spain and Portugal. These are very positive decisions for the liberalisation of the workforce, but we are waiting for France, the Netherlands and Belgium to join in and liberalise their labour markets, as this is in the interest of everybody."@en1
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