European Diary: The European Commission moved to Vienna yesterday for its first meeting of the year to mark the beginning of the six-month Austrian presidency.
In a succession of top-level briefings, the Austrian government pledged to do its best to reinvigorate the EU, including restarting the debate on the EU constitutional treaty.
But with just 32 per cent of the Austrian public saying in polls that the EU is a "good thing", the coalition government of Wolfgang Shüssel will have its work cut out.
It was illustrative of the eurosceptic mood in Austria that its foreign minister Ursula Plassnik gave a presentation to the press without even mentioning the word enlargement.
And when asked if Austria would take a role in pushing to remove the restrictions on people from new member states coming to work in the EU15, she was clear: "Every country must make its own decision on their transitional situations."
In short, fear of the Polish plumber is alive and well in Vienna, which has some of the toughest restrictions on freedom of labour for citizens of the new member states.
But this is one political hot potato that Austria may not be able to avoid. On April 30th each member state that imposes restrictions on the free movement of labour will have to apply to the European Commission to have these extended. A commission report due to be published this month will also urge removal of restrictions.
The only three original EU states to completely remove barriers to labour movement are Sweden, Ireland and Britain, although the last makes workers from eight of the new member states register with the Home Office within 30 days of starting work.
But with unemployment averaging 8.5 per cent in the EU, and close to 10 per cent in both France and Germany, the prospects of many governments removing restrictions are low.
Only Finland has so far said that it is considering relaxing its policy towards the new member states this May, in line with the commission's wishes.
"It is very likely that Finland will open its labour market and both the prime minister and the labour minister have indicated they are in favour," said a Finnish government spokesman based in Brussels. But a final decision will only be made following consultations with parliament, unions and employment organisations, he said.
The commission is deeply opposed to the current swathe of restrictions imposed on the citizens of new member states who want to travel to the original EU15 to work.
"The EU is based on the idea of the free movement of labour, goods, services and capital within the common market," commission president José Manuel Barroso told an audience in the Czech capital Prague recently.
"From the very beginning the EU has been striving to have the transition period cancelled . . . I am personally convinced that transition periods are not beneficial for the EU."
Unsurprisingly, new member states have reacted badly to the restrictions, which can continue for up to seven years under transition arrangements in the accession treaty. Poland, Slovenia and Hungary have even imposed their own reciprocal restrictions on citizens of the EU15 living and working on their territory.
The exact restrictions imposed by EU member states on the movement of labour vary. For example, Denmark issues work permits to nationals from eight of the states that joined the EU on May 1st, 2004, excluding Malta or Cyprus, on condition that their work is full-time and governed by a collective labour agreement.
There is no need to satisfy a labour market test, but applicants must also be granted a residence permit before taking up a job.
The Netherlands has adopted a two-fold procedure - a traditional full work-permit system, including a labour market test, applies for most sectors, but a number of sectors and occupations are exempt from this procedure.
France has decided to maintain a work permit system but not, for example, for work in the research sector. Belgium, Finland, Greece, Luxembourg and Spain have also decided to maintain a traditional work-permit system. Italy has kept its work-permit system, but issued an entry quota for workers from the eight member states in question. Legislation in Portugal also provides for a quota system.
Germany and Austria, two countries with some of the biggest concerns about migration, have work-permit systems.
Both states are also making use of a provision set out in the accession treaties which enables them to apply restrictions for cross-border services in sensitive sectors, involving the temporary movement of workers.
This mishmash of different rules and regulations may run contrary to the guiding principle of the EU single market. However, even in states with low unemployment, such as the Netherlands, there seems little appetite to remove barriers.
"We haven't taken any decision yet," said one Dutch diplomat, who stresses that investigations into the issue will begin in earnest later in the year.
But he conceded that last year's vote against the EU constitution, which was largely driven by fears of migration, and upcoming local elections mean it is likely the Netherlands will seek an extension to the labour market restrictions in April.
Whether a decision to relax the restrictions on labour from the 10 new member states among the 12 original EU states is a good thing for Ireland depends on who you ask. The Government says it needs more migrants to fuel the economy, while Labour leader Pat Rabbitte wants to consider reimposing restrictions.
But one thing is clear: few EU states look set to follow Ireland, Britain and Sweden come April 30th.