Switzerland said today (18 April) it would temporarily re-introduce an authorisation requirement for workers coming from the eight East European countries that joined the EU in 2004, a decision that was sharply  criticised by EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton.

A leading Polish MEP today (2 May) spoke out strongly against Dutch plans to expel EU citizens who make "disproportionate claims" on the social benefit system in the Netherlands, or who have committed "very serious or repeated offences".

As of 1 July, Bulgarians and Romanians as well as foreigners from outside the EU will only be granted a work permit in the Netherlands under "exceptional cases," the Dutch press reported on Tuesday (12 April).

The EU is missing a trick by not allowing spouses of multinational company workers to work under new Directive proposals for assigning key international personnel to the European Union, advocacy expert Kathleen van der Wilk-Carlton told EurActiv in an interview.

More Polish migrants wish to stay in the West in spite of the economic downturn than politicians care to admit, recent surveys have shown. Many are taking root in wealthier societies than back home, EurActiv Poland reports.

After a sharp drop in the emigration trend from Bulgaria during the period 2002-2006, a new tendency to leave the country has emerged among professionally unqualified young people between 20-29 years of age, reports Dnevnik, EurActiv's partner in Bulgaria.

The number of Czech citizens choosing to work in another EU member state has declined significantly in recent years, and further waves of labour migration from the Czech Republic are unlikely to occur in the near future. EurActiv Czech Republic reports.

With a population seven times smaller than Poland, Slovakia generates less labour migration than its big neighbour, but the proportion is the same. Slovaks are also less 'visible' in Western countries because many of them are students who finished their studies in the West and are already integrated there. EurActiv Slovakia reports.

Trade unions in Poland are calling for restrictions on some foreign workers, partly to make room for thousands of Polish workers expected to lose their jobs in other parts of the crisis-hit European Union.

The European Court of Justice yesterday (10 February) ruled against Paris in a case where lawyers, medics and dentists from Bulgaria and Romania were unlawfully denied access to the French labour market.

Cultural resistance and fear of integrating a large Muslim minority are leading Brussels to consider imposing restrictions on the free movement of Turkish workers when the country eventually joins the EU, Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn told EurActiv in an exclusive interview.

The European Parliament's civil liberties committee yesterday (4 November) approved the Blue Card scheme for highly-qualified migrants. The text sets minimum salary requirements at 1.7 times the national average wage.

Migrant workers from the EU's Eastern member states face systematic discrimination when moving to work in 'old Europe', according to a new report presented on Monday (15 September) at the Centre for European Policy Studies in Brussels (CEPS).

The French EU Presidency will concentrate on a common approach to migration, climate change, energy policy and security and defence as its key areas, writes French EU Affairs Minister Jean-Pierre Jouyet for the summer edition of Europe’s World.

Shortages of skilled workers are prompting governments in the EU's newer eastern members to develop strategies to lure back their nationals from richer western countries. But often the salaries offered back home remain well below workers' expectations. EurActiv's network of eastern media affiliates reports from the region.

Romanian businesses face the greatest difficulty worldwide in finding qualified personnel, reveals the latest study by Manpower Inc., a world leader in the employment services industry, Euractiv.ro reports.

The employment aspects of EU immigration policies were at the centre of a Parliament hearing on Monday (8 October), just two weeks ahead of Commission proposals to tackle undeclared work while improving the rights of legal immigrants in the European labour market.

The EU has seen a shift towards "an externalisation of migration policy" towards the Mediterranean countries of the Middle East and North Africa (Med-MENA) – as proven by current Association Agreements – according to a study by Ounia Doukouré and Helen Oger for the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies.

Portugal, the upcoming holder of the EU presidency, said that it will push for a "realistic" approach to legal migration - one that takes care of social inclusion alongside tight border controls - to help solve Europe's looming job-shortage crisis.

The Bulgarian Economic and Social Council (ESC) suggested that the country's government implement a number of economic measures to encourage Bulgarians living abroad to return home. EurActiv's Bulgarian partner portal Dnevnik.bg talked to ESC Chairman, Professor Lalko Dulevski, about the proposals.

The Aeneas Programme has been endorsed with a further budget of €45 million by the EU executive to co-finance actions in third countries.

Instead, Europe should provide helicopters and off-road vehicles to stop the traffic from sub-Saharan Africa says European Affairs Minister Abdulati Alobidi.

Statistics published on 22 August 2006 show that the UK received more than 427,000 migrant workers from the new member states since 2004. These figures contrast with earlier statistics, which gave far lower estimates.

Following an initiative of their French colleague Nicolas Sarkozy, the interior ministers of the EU's six biggest member states have agreed to examine the possibility of asking potential EU immigrants to sign an 'integration contract'.