Eastern Europeans can now work in Germany.

Yahew

As from Yesterday May 1st 2011, Germany France and Italy has to open it's borders to Poles and other Eastern European immigrants.

Apparently the Shegen zone is being re-negotiated at the same time. Lets see how that pans out.

Oh, look.

View

Yahew wrote: »

As from Yesterday May 1st 2011, Germany France and Italy has to open it's borders to Poles and other Eastern European immigrants.

Most of the East European states - bar Bulgaria and Romania - have been members of the Schengen area since late 2007 (for land/sea crossings), early 2008 (for air travel). As such the borders between Germany, France and Italy and those states are and have been far more open than our border with them.

Perhaps you are referring to the free movement of workers instead? Even then, Italy has allowed unrestricted access to its labour market since 2006, France since 2008. Germany and Austria have had restrictions for certain specified occupations which expired yesterday. Since those restrictions were specified in the Accession Treaties of the states concerned, the states concerned knew of these restrictions in advance of joining, so they weren't complaining (too much) about them.

Yahew wrote: »

Apparently the Shegen zone is being re-negotiated at the same time. Lets see how that pans out.

Oh, look.

The proposal you are referring to is - as the article you linked to states - an emergency clause where, should a member state lose control of its external (i.e. non-EU) frontier, the option would exist to re-apply border controls to that specific member state until such time as it regains control of its border. Obviously, no common travel area will survive if the external frontier of a member state is leaking like a sieve.

Dob74

This should be the lead story on all news outlets.
Alot of the Poles I know are leaving for Germany. Closer to home and more work.
Probably will take a year or two to really feel the effect in this country.

paky

how come europe isnt facing the same economic problems germany faced when it was re unified with the east or is it?

nesf

paky wrote: »

how come europe isnt facing the same economic problems germany faced when it was re unified with the east or is it?

Um, because the situation is vastly different?

ArseBurger

Yahew wrote: »

As from Yesterday May 1st 2011, Germany France and Italy has to open it's borders to Poles and other Eastern European immigrants.

Apparently the Shegen zone is being re-negotiated at the same time. Lets see how that pans out.

Oh, look.

There's a Poland in Eastern Europe now?

I wonder if it's related to the one in Central Europe?

djpbarry

ArseBurger wrote: »

There's a Poland in Eastern Europe now?

I wonder if it's related to the one in Central Europe?

In 2004, everywhere in Europe east of Berlin was united into a single, homogenous region named “Eastern Europe”. You obviously didn't get the memo.

greendom

I thought it was a bit older than that - all the Communist bloc states were known as Eastern Europe weren't they. Poland, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria. If you look at a map they are all to the East of Europe.

djpbarry

greendom wrote: »

I thought it was a bit older than that - all the Communist bloc states were known as Eastern Europe weren't they. Poland, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria. If you look at a map they are all to the East of Europe.

Yes, it was often referred to as the Eastern Bloc. But the USSR collapsed 20 years ago, so I think the term's a bit outdated.

It's just a bit of a bugbear of mine – Irish people get all het up about terms such as “British Isles”, but they’ll happily lump people from say, Latvia and Slovenia (two very different places) together under the one banner.

barron

I think a lot of people who are right now in Ireland and Uk will go to the Germany because it's much closer so it will be not so problematic for their and their's families.

axer

barron wrote: »

I think a lot of people who are right now in Ireland and Uk will go to the Germany because it's much closer so it will be not so problematic for their and their's families.

You think there is jobs in Eastern Germany? Theres not even jobs for the Germans for there. Id say there probably are more prospects in Ireland still.

View

greendom wrote: »

I thought it was a bit older than that - all the Communist bloc states were known as Eastern Europe weren't they. Poland, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria. If you look at a map they are all to the East of Europe.

They were indeed. That though is technically inaccurate as - depending on which set of geographers you talk to - the geographic centre of Europe is either in S Lithuania close to Vilnius or the extreme NE of Poland or somewhere thereabouts (Yes, Russia really is that big).

As such most of those states are technically "Western European". Were that the phrase being used, it would upset all the complainers would probably find it much harder to go on about all the "The Western Europeans" here!

As it is, historically speaking, most of those states would have identified themselves as being Central European (along with Germany, Austria and possibly Switzerland) up to the start of the cold war when they suddenly found themselves "re-branded".