Estonia's six months in EU have brought no massive changes for Finland

The membership of Estonia in the European Union from May of this year has led to an increase in interaction between Finns and Estonians, but neither the feared massive imports of alcohol nor the flood of foreign workers have materialised. Monday marked six months since Estonia became a member of the EU. Minister of Labour Tarja Filatov (SDP) says that the changes on the labour market have been more or less what has been expected. "There are no signs of a massive surge of labour", she says. One factor slowing down the movement of labour has been the two-year interim period imposed by the Finnish Parliament, which restricted access to the Finnish labour market by new EU member states. Some trade union leaders say that the amount of Estonian labour in Finland has grown, as Finnish companies have been using more Estonian subcontractors and temp agencies; the two-year waiting period does not apply to their employees.