The Spanish government announced Thursday it will lift immigration restrictions for workers from the EU's new Eastern European member states in an effort to counter labor market pressures from low birth rates and an aging population.
Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said at a joint news conference with his Polish counterpart Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz that, as of May 1, the government will open the Spanish labor market to workers from Poland, the Czech Republic, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Hungary, Slovakia and Slovenia. Workers from the two other new EU members, Cyprus and Malta, already have free access to Spain.
"It's good news for these countries and it's good news for the European Union," Marcinkiewicz told reporters at the one-day summit in the southern city of Granada.
When these eight countries joined the EU in 2004, most existing members placed seven-year limits on their workers ability to move to and work in Western Europe.
Thursday's decision to lift immigration barriers for the eight Eastern European countries will bring Spain into line with some EU countries such as Britain, Ireland and Sweden, which have no immigration curbs for workers from those countries.
"The free movement of workers is very positive for the economy," Zapatero said. "We hope that other countries follow suit."
Spain's move follows an immigration amnesty begun last year by the government, which granted nearly 800,000 new residence permits and moved thousands of undocumented workers out of the country's underground economy.
Poland has the EU's highest unemployment rate, at 18 percent, and has been lobbying with Western European countries to remove immigration barriers to its workers.
According to government statistics, the number of legal Polish residents in Spain grew by nearly 47 percent last year to 34,800, mostly because of the amnesty. They work mainly in construction and agriculture.
The Polish community is the largest contingent from the eight new Eastern European member states. Spain has more than 2.7 million legal foreign residents out of a total population of about 40 million. About 29 percent of legal foreigners come from EU countries.
Both leaders also discussed energy security and EU policy toward Russia and Ukraine among other international issues.
|