UK warned over migrant workers

The European Commission has issued a warning to the UK over its “discriminatory” rules for workers coming into the country from the new EU member states in Central and Eastern Europe.

The Commission has rebuked the UK government because migrant workers currently cannot claim welfare benefits if they have spent less than a year working in the UK, it argues that the workers from the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Poland, the countries which joined the EU in 2004, should enjoy the same rights as UK nationals.

When the countries originally joined the EU, most member states kept work permit restrictions and quotas in place but these were mostly lifted a couple of years later. The Commission said that such restrictions should last no longer than seven years and must be proportionate. It reiterated the directive that workers should have the freedom to live and work in another EU member state.

The UK introduced a Worker Registration Scheme (WRS) to try and prevent “benefit tourism” in 2004. WRS applicants totalled 118,675 in 2009, with just over half the applicants coming from Poland.

Poland has the cheapest food in the EU

Poland's food and non-alcoholic drinks in a comparable shopping basket to other European Union member states was found to be an average of 36 percent cheaper according to figures reported by Eurostat.

In the survey carried out by the Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union during 2009, prices from the 37 participating countries for food, alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages and tobacco were compared across around 500 comparable products.

In a breakdown Polish bread and cereals were 42 percent cheaper than the average for all EU member states with meat being 44 percent cheaper, milk, cheese and eggs 37 percent cheaper, tobacco 48 percent cheaper and alcoholic beverages 11 percent cheaper.

Overall Poland was found to have the lowest prices on average closely followed bt Bulgaria and Romania.  Denmark averages the highest prices at around 40 percent overall more than the EU average.

What the survey fails to mention is that wages in Poland are also below the EU members states average.