Free movement and enlargement of the EU

• A European Commission report on the free movement of workers since the 2004 enlargement shows that mobility from the EU Member States in Central and Eastern Europe to the EU15 has had mostly positive effects and has generally been lower than foreseen.
• The report’s statistics, submitted by the EU Member States themselves, show most countries having seen lower than expected labour flows from Central and Eastern Europe. New Member State (EU10) nationals represented fewer than 1% of the working age population in all countries except Austria (1.4% in 2005) and Ireland (3.8 % in 2005).

(Source : Report on the Functioning of the Transitional Arrangements set out in the 2003 Accession Treaty, February 2006)