The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) is not afraid that the so-called cheap laborers from the EU's future new member countries will flood the European labor market

The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) is not afraid that the so-called cheap laborers from the EU's future new member countries will flood the European labor market, ETUC General Secretary Emilio Gabaglio, on a visit to Slovakia, has told CTK. Social differences will be successfully coped with in the extended EU, Gabaglio, who attended a two-day international conference on social dialogue in Bratislava, said on Saturday. By no means is it necessary to dramatize the problem. A realistic approach should be taken to it, he said. Gabaglio pointed out that European unions based their stands on EU studies, according to which there is no threat of the EU being hit by a huge wave of new laborers from Eastern Europe. Gabaglio said this also applied to Slovakia where, in some regions, more than a quarter of residents are unemployed. The ETUC must support Slovakia's effort to develop its labor market and improve social conditions, he said. It is impossible to deny the right to free movement of labor to a candidate country, as it is one of the EU's basic rights. If dramatic developments occurred in some sectors, European trade unions have pragmatic tools to control the problem, Gabaglio said, giving special programs and the introduction of quotas as examples. Gabaglio said he was convinced that panic fears of a growth in unemployment had been spread by far-right parties in order to boost their election gains, not by trade unions. He expressed his satisfaction with the course of the Bratislava conference attended by some 200 representatives of trade unions, employers and state administrations from 25 European countries. He said social dialogue enjoyed good conditions in Europe, with occasional pressures of some of the three sides involved being successfully coped with. Slovakia is among the "second wave" EU candidate countries but wants to catch up with its three post-communist neighbors (the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland), which are fast-track candidates for EU entry. No official date of enlargement has been announced as yet.