New European Union nations are pushing hard to get older members to drop labour restrictions, hoping that several west European countries will abandon existing barriers next May, two years after enlargement.
Polish and Hungarian government officials concede it will be almost impossible to persuade Germany and Austria to remove their restrictions. However, they said other EU countries, where the labour migration issue is less sensitive politically, might be persuaded to open their markets fully by next year.
Twelve EU countries now bar citizens from eight central European countries that joined the EU in 2004 from taking jobs without a work permit. Only the Republic, the UK and Sweden granted all 10 new members, which include Malta and Cyprus, full access to their labour markets.
Research published by civil rights group European Citizen Action Service last week showed that the Republic has been the top destination for migrants from the 10 new EU states.
The State has attracted six times as many people as Britain in proportion to its population.
The EU-wide campaign being led by the new states will come to a head next May, when governments can either lift the barriers or renew restrictions for another three years.
The curbs were allowed under accession treaties penned with each of the new members from central Europe, where wages are considerably lower than in western Europe. They can last from two to seven years, with reviews at two and five years.
Most of the new member states expected only nearby Germany and Austria to impose restrictions.
But just before enlargement, amid warnings from anti-immigration groups of a flood of cheap labour from the east, 12 governments invoked restrictions.
The moves caused surprise and anger in the new EU capitals, where governments have since argued that the barriers distort the EU's internal market and deny central Europeans one of the union's four fundamental liberties: free movement of people, goods, capital and services.
This autumn the European Commission will form a high-level working group to study the impact of the barriers. Ahead of that, countries such as Poland and Hungary have been lobbying hard.
Marek Sarjusz-Wolski, editor of Unia & Polska, a monthly journal devoted to European issues, said: "This matter is brought up in every bilateral meeting, from presidents to foreign ministers to department heads. It is always on the table."
The central Europeans have support from Vladimir Spidla, European commissioner for employment, social affairs and equal opportunity, himself a Czech..
