UPDATE 1-France to open jobs market to C.Europeans-Sarkozy

                                
 (Adds European Commissioner, paragraphs 4-5, more background)
                                
 By Elizabeth Pineau
                                
 WARSAW, May 28 (Reuters) - France will fully open its labour
market to workers from the eight central European countries
which joined the European Union in 2004, French President
Nicolas Sarkozy said on Wednesday.
                                
 France, unlike Britain and Ireland, exercised its right 
temporarily to exclude workers from Poland, the Czech Republic,
Hungary and other central European countries when they joined.
                                
 "France has decided to lift all restrictions (on workers
from the new member states) as of July 1," Sarkozy told a joint
news conference with Polish President Lech Kaczynski during a
one-day visit to Warsaw.
                                
 In Brussels, European Employment Commissioner Vladimir
Spidla welcomed Sarkozy's announcement.
                                
 "Most countries have already opened so the French are rather
late, but it remains a good decision. Throwing the labour market
wide open will be beneficial not only in France but also in
other countries which have not yet done so," Spidla said.
                                
 EU officials say only Germany, Belgium, Denmark and
Luxembourg now retain restrictions on the free movement of
workers from the 2004 entrants, which also include Slovakia,
Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Slovenia.
                                
 French restrictions will remain for now for Bulgaria and
Romania, which joined the EU in 2007.
                                
 Under the terms of the EU's enlargement, all member states
must fully open their jobs market to the 2004 entrants by 2011.
                                
 Around one million immigrants from the new member states,
many of them Poles, have arrived in Britain since 2004, though
about half of them have since returned home, partly due to
strong economic growth across the ex-communist region.
                                
 Economists say the big influx of Polish and other central
European workers has boosted economic growth in Britain and
helped plug labour shortages in some sections of its economy.
                                
 However, critics say the immigration has put severe strain
on health, education and other services in some areas.
                                
 France has traditionally been more protectionist on economic
issues than Britain and has feared central European immigrants
would undercut French workers by accepting lower wages.
                                
 Poland, with 38 million people, is by far the largest of the
new EU member states. Its economy grew by 6.6 percent in 2007
and is expected to expand by a further 5.5 percent this year.
 (Writing by Gareth Jones, editing by Gerrard Raven)