On May 1st ten countries celebrate their fifth birthday as members of the European Union. It ought to be quite a party: the enlargement of 2004 to take in countries like Poland and Hungary marked a rare moment of strategic wisdom. Alas, the anniversary has already been overshadowed by an act of petty selfishness on the part of Germany. The German government announced this week that it was keeping labour restrictions on workers from the eight east European countries that joined in 2004 (the other two new members, Cyprus and Malta, were tiddlers that escaped the restrictions).
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