Spain, Finland scrap curbs on workers from new members

Spain and Finland plan to lift a curb on workers from the European Union's former communist states on May 1, they said, the latest step in breaking down borders within the bloc.

Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero brushed off concerns that the decision could threaten jobs in the Mediterranean country while Finland said its Parliament would give a final answer on the move by the end of April.

The fear of eastern Europeans taking jobs away from their own citizens has shaken some older members of the EU which are allowed to limit the number of workers from the newer states until 2011.

Most EU countries opened up to Cypriot and Maltese workers when the new wave of member states joined the bloc in 2004 but only Ireland, Sweden and Britain welcomed workers from the eight eastern European nations.

"We are convinced that allowing workers to move freely through the EU will be very positive for the economy and for development, not only for Spain... but for Europe as a whole," Mr Zapatero said after meeting Polish Prime Minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz. Spanish unemployment stood at 8.7 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2005 and there have been concerns that allowing more foreign workers in would take jobs away from Spaniards.

"The Spanish economy is solid and is creating jobs," Mr Zapatero told a news conference in Granada's Alhambra Palace. "Our experience when we entered the EU, and the experience of Sweden and Britain on this labour issue, is that people's fears are eventually dissipated by the facts."

Mr Marcinkiewicz said the move was "symbolically important". "It shows we are all Europeans," he said, adding that Poland, which has the EU's highest unemployment rate at 18 per cent, had 10 million young, ambitious and well-educated people who would form the basis of its future workforce.

The Spanish and Polish premiers also signalled their broad support for a common EU energy policy, outlined in Brussels on Wednesday, in which Europe would speak with one voice to foreign suppliers like Russia, following fears over supplies in January.

Mr Zapatero skirted questions on Spain's tough stance against a bid for its biggest utility, Endesa , from Germany's E.ON, having approved an offer from Spanish Gas Natural.

"The problem is not whether there are champions with a European or national flag," Mr Zapatero said. "The problem is that there has to be a shared energy policy, because the world, particularly in energy, is inter-connected."

Mr Zapatero also said Spain, which received billions of euros of EU funds when it joined the bloc in 1986, was ready to help Poland use €7 billion of development cash it is due to receive by 2013.

Spanish companies in sectors from infrastructure to banking, environment to telecoms, are keen to get a foothold in Poland, where per capita GDP and spending is well below the EU average.