Tsjechische kritiek op Nederland na afsluiten arbeidsmarkt (en)

The Czech president Vaclav Klaus and Prime Minister Vladimir Spidla heavily criticised the Dutch government yesterday (16 February) for its decision to impose further restrictions on labour immigration from new EU member states.

The Dutch cabinet decided last Friday that it will allow workers from new EU countries to work only in sectors with a shortage of labour. Other sectors of the labour market will be closed off. The restrictive measure would last until May 2006.

On a visit to Prague yesterday, the Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende was confronted with outspoken discontent by the Czech leaders. According to De Volkskrant, president Klaus denounced the Dutch stance to Mr Balkenende as `unjustifiable'.

Prime Minister Spidla said according to Ceské noviny: "I expressed my relatively clear disagreement". Asked whether he was considering any similar measures against Dutch citizens intending to work in the Czech Republic, Mr Spidla answered: "what goes around, comes around".

The Dutch cabinet decision announced last Friday marks a hardening of its earlier position. On 23 January, the government proposed to impose a ceiling of 22,000 migrant workers from the acceding countries that could enter the Netherlands on a yearly basis.

But under pressure from a parliamentary majority of centre-right parties, which fear the Dutch labour market will not be able to absorb such numbers, the government was forced to abandon the idea of a quota.

Within the EU, only Ireland and the UK have indicated they will grant full access to their labour markets after EU enlargement.