BRUSSELS, Feb 5 (AFP): The European Commission will urge 12 European states Wednesday to finally open their borders to workers from the bloc's ex-communist newcomer states as a way of boosting their economies. In the first of three reports on the transitional phase since the European Union's "big bang" enlargement of May 2004, the EU's executive arm says that fears of an invasion by cheap "Polish plumbers" were unfounded. "In spite of fears expressed on the occasion of the successive enlargements, free movement of workers has not led to disruption of national labour markets," the commission says in a draft of its report. Most of the 15 members of "Old Europe"-Britain, Ireland and Sweden aside-have kept their doors shut to potential labour from the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia since 2004. The restrictions have included demands for work permits-which some countries limit with quotas-but do not apply to workers from Cyprus or Malta, which joined the bloc on the same day. The measures are supposed to be phased out over a seven-year period, with the first of the three phases due to end on April 30, as EU states are not allowed to discriminate against workers on the basis of nationality. In its report, the commission limits itself to counselling each of the EU member states that has kept the restrictions in place, but it quite clearly calls for the bloc's labour borders to be opened. "Freedom of movement of workers is one of the basic freedoms under the European community treaty," the text reads. "The aim of the transitional measures is to allow them to prepare themselves to achieve this ultimate and irrevocable goal as soon as possible." The 12 countries concerned will have until the end of April to decide whether to lift the restrictions, keep them in place for a few years or make them more flexible; for example, by limiting them to certain sectors. Austria and Germany, which border many of the new states, have already said they will not be changing policy now. Finland and Spain, on the other hand, appear ready to lift the restrictions.
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