BERLIN, July 19, 2008 (AFP) - The European Union's employment commissioner Saturday has asked for an explanation from Germany over its decision to keep out many workers from new EU member states in eastern Europe until 2011.

'I am awaiting a concrete and detailed explanation from Germany,' Vladimir Spidla told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung daily during a conference in Bonn.

'Germany must provide (an explanation), then I will see if the arguments are convincing,' the former Czech prime minister added.

He said that while EU states could maintain restrictions until 2011, 'each government must prove there are risks of serious disruption to its labour market.'

Announcing the continuation of the bar, which would leave it alone in Europe, the German government said Wednesday it would ease red tape for highly qualified new EU citizens seeking work in order to fill yawning gaps in the job market.

In 2004, when the EU expanded to include 10 new members, mainly from eastern Europe, Berlin cited fears that a flood of cheap labour would put Germans out of work due to Germany's geographic proximity to the new member states.

The German unemployment rate has since fallen from the double-digit range to 7.5 percent in June.

Meanwhile German businesses now complain of a chronic lack of highly trained workers such as engineers and computer programmers.