Demands for EU job protection

BRUSSELS, Belgium -- European Union foreign ministers are to meet to try to agree a timetable for when East Europeans can work in the EU once their their countries have joined the bloc.

Germany and Austria, fearing an influx of cheap labour as EU membership expands, want jobseekers from Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and nine other East European nations to be kept out for at least seven years.

Additionally, Germany wants a seven-year waiting period for some self-employed categories, notably construction contractors.

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The issue will be discussed at a meeting to be held on Monday.

Germany and Austria, which border on Eastern Europe, defend their suggestion to keep eastern workers out by arguing that cheap labour pouring in could aggravate anti-foreigner feelings.

Spain, Portugal and Greece link their approval for that to guarantees that the flow of billions of euros a year for their poor regions will not be cut when even-poorer East European nations join.

Germany and Austria reject any such link.

Spain alone is getting 42.9 billion euros ($38.8 billion) in development aid in the 2000-2006 period.

But such aid is linked to a country's relative wealth. Regions that now qualify for handouts because average incomes are less than 75 percent of the union's GNP will rise above that cutoff point the moment poorer newcomers join.

All this has soured relations with the candidate EU nations, which have been negotiating their entry into the EU for two years.

And more friction lies ahead.

France will likely seek protection for its farmers when the doors to the East swing open.

Poland has as many farmers as the entire 15-nation EU already, which is having a difficult time keeping a lid on agricultural subsidies as it is.

EU negotiators are avoiding agriculture until after the French presidential elections in April 2002.

Another tough issue deals with getting East Europeans to meet EU environmental standards.

There are no entry dates, but Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Malta and Poland may join the EU as early as 2004.

Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia would join later.

Also on the agenda of Monday's meeting will be the Mideast, European security matters and Macedonia.

The EU ministers also will sign an association accord with Croatia -- the Stability and Association Agreement -- which is the EU's second with an ex-Yugoslav republic.

It agreement offers Croatia the prospect of free trade, regular political consultations and, eventually, EU membership.

The EU signed its first Balkan stability accord with Macedonia this year.

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