Italy sticks to its quota system
Meanwhile, Italy announced on Friday (10 March) that it would keep its temporary ban on workers from new Europe for another three years, until 2009, according to AP.com.
But it has increased its annual quota from 85,000 to 170,000 with statistics showing that previous quotas were not filled in the past.
In both France and Italy, work permits have been almost exclusively granted to seasonal workers from new EU member states.
In France, 74% of the authorisations issued in 2004 were for seasonal workers, 11% for temporary workers and only 5% for permanent workers, while Italy granted 76 % of work permits to seasonal workers, according to European Commission statistics.
More announcements to come
Most "old" EU member states are obliged to inform the commission by the end of April whether they will renew the temporary work barriers to the bloc's new citizens.
Only the UK, Ireland and Sweden did not introduce any when the countries joined in May 2004.
Spain, Portugal and Finland officially confirmed last week they would open up their labour markets from 1 May.
The "old" member states can keep the labour barriers for a maximum of five more years, until 2011.
A commission report presented last month showed that concerns over a potential influx of economic migrants to western Europe have not been proven true.
Only in Ireland and Austria do nationals from new EU member states represent more than 1 percent of the working age population, hitting 3.8 percent and 1.4 percent present in the two countries respectively.
Ireland has seen the largest inflow of workers, according to the commission's report.
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