Here is a couple of EU stories that illustrates the issues Denmark and other high wage EU countries have
By law if a public project is (in Denmark) valued at more than GBP 50.000(ish) (DKK 500.000) it has to go for an EU bid round. So everyone in the EU can bid on it. That might be office supplies or whole building works. By law the Public office HAVE to select the cheapest offer with no regard to quality as long as builders "promise" to follow the specifications.
Well that has meant in recent times that most things in Denmark is built by Eastern European building companies. Mostly Polish but also from other former eastern European origins.
And unfortunately that is like hiring the Mafia to build for you. Despite all kinds of safeguards for material choice, labor rights and so on and so forth - most buildings done have to be partly redone 2-3 times. The builders are often not educated as builders - so huge blunders are made. Materials are "changed" without permission to cheaper or copy or scrap versions. Workers are on paper PAID the official amount - but are then FORCED by their "foremen" to hand anywhere from 25 to 95% of their wages to their bosses in cash. They are very apt at "conning" the system and when to many lights shine on the company - they close it - and start a new one. Their bosses then abuse the Danish befits system by "randomly" laying off staff so they can claim government benefits for a short period - while they still work full time. And the bosses steal the benefits as well.
So the one thing they are great at -
is gaming the system to the limits. They plan it fully - have multiple "empty" companies setup and vetted for bidding on EU projects - and when heat under one company gets to much - they just close it and move all staff to the next ready company they have set up - and let the old one collapse - and thereby they do not have to pay for the warranty issues on the buildings they just finished. And the "warranty" fixes for the poor quality quite often exceed the entire price of the whole project!
And it happens not only in building sites. Anything from office cleaning to transport is the same. One recent raid by tax/police discovered a whole house full of Polish cleaners with all paperwork in order on paper - but in reality the "business manager" took each employee down to the cash machine after each payday and emptied the accounts and only gave the staff "pocket money" - which meant the cleaning staff spent all their time they should be cleaning - cleaning out (stealing) from lockers and computers to make money. That was the price the staff had to "pay" to get a job - and then the staff relied on Danish benefits for children, sick pay etc to be paid out in Poland as their "real" salaries while the bosses kept the majority. So in reality the PERFECT way to "whitewash" money and generate huge amounts of cash.
I'm not saying Polish people in general are con artists - but they are abused a lot by "Mafia" bosses from Poland. If you find the right Polish workers they are usually better than Brit's
and work harder.
But EU rules has made a mockery of how bidding/tenders are done in the public space. But you have to hire Polish people on an individual basis and not through a "Mafia" operated Eastern European company.
Poland and the other former Eastern European countries was not ready for EU and EU was not ready for them.
Sorry if I have offended anyone by the above - but I could continue for hours with examples - many of which the Government and Politicians are trying to keep "hidden" out of fear of backlash from EU.
And I do love Poland btw - I lived in Warsaw for 2 years right after the wall came down - and the first McDonald's opened in Warsaw with 7 km queue - and geeks met at the computer market on Saturday and they sold pirate copies of software and hacked satellite receivers in the open
and what ever else western they could get their hands on after having been on USSR wait-lists for years just to get a new car or a new fridge. They had plenty of cash (zloty) after not being able to buy things for so many years - so it was Klondike!