Business is not good at the central market in the eastern German town of Goerlitz on the border with Poland. Marcell Leuchner, 33, hawking clothes, shoes and imitation leather bags from his stall off the Marienplatz, says May's enlargement of the European Union to take in 10 mainly eastern European countries, including Poland, hasn't helped.
Relaxing border controls has made it even easier for Goerlitz's 60,000 inhabitants to cross the bridge over the River Neisse to the Polish town of Zgorzelec to take advantage of lower prices for anything from petrol to clothing and haircuts.
"Some of the traders here are really having to fight hard for survival," Leuchner told Reuters as he waited for customers in the morning sunshine.
"EU enlargement hasn't improved things at all and they know that up there in Berlin," he added. "That was always clear and that's the terrible thing about it."
Along the eastern border with Poland, some Germans say their fears are being confirmed that EU enlargement will hurt business and accelerate the export of jobs to eastern Europe, where labour costs are on average only a fifth of those in Germany.
While Germans worry about losing their jobs and police warn of rising crime with the abolition of customs checks, Poles are looking forward to a rise in living standards and an increase in foreign investment.
The unemployment rate of 24 percent in Goerlitz, which resembles an open-air museum with its beautifully restored Baroque and Renaissance buildings, is already double that of Zgorzelec.
Poles are suffering too as prices for some goods such as petrol are rising along the border amid a surge in demand from German customers.
Goerlitz Mayor Rolf Karbaum said skilled tradesmen such as carpenters, plumbers and hairdressers were suffering most as more and more Germans took advantage of cheaper services provided by competitors across the border.
A haircut and blow-dry in Goerlitz costs around 20 euros ($24), while across the river in Zgorzelec, which has about four times as many salons, the same can be had for the equivalent of 10 euros.
Asked what has changed for the citizens of Goerlitz since May 1, Karbaum said the disappearance of kilometre-long queues of trucks and waiting times of up to 70 hours at the border were visible proof of a change for the better.
"Where things are going more slowly is in the area of the economy," he said.
"Of course we didn't expect that suddenly hundreds of Polish-German companies would spring up - things don't work that fast.
"But according to our information, there is stronger demand at the chamber of commerce for information about how German and Polish companies can work together."
Across the river in Zgorzelec, with its bustling food and clothing stalls, tobacco shops, petrol stations and hairdressers, Deputy Mayor Ireneusz Aniszkiewicz said enlargement hadn't changed much for Poles as trade with Germany had expanded rapidly since the mid 1990s.
Aniszkiewicz said many Polish companies had been taking advantage of opportunities in Germany before Poland joined the EU.
"I recently spoke to a Polish businessman who has a small furniture workshop in Germany," he added. "He set up shop there before EU accession because there are no German companies making furniture in the area."
Aniszkiewicz said he was hopeful that joining the EU would boost foreign investment into Poland, where the corporate income tax rate is 19 percent, compared with about 38 percent in Germany.
Back across the Neisse, Rainer Appelt, head of the Goerlitz branch of the Dresden chamber of commerce, said many German skilled tradesmen were coming under "extreme price and competitive pressure" from eastern Europe.
"I certainly believe that pressure has increased since May 1," he said in an interview.
"If you talk to a skilled tradesman he has a lot more fears for the future than an entrepreneur in an industrial company. The challenge is to try to better use the opportunities enlargement brings."
Some Germans are trying to turn lower prices and cheaper labour costs in eastern Europe to their advantage.
According to a report in the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper, Berlin undertaker Hartmut Woite has been conducting coach tours for German clients to a crematorium in Vysocany in the Czech Republic to advertise his discount funerals.
Woite offers funerals for 888 euros ($1,072), about half the cost of a similar service in Berlin, the paper said.
For Goerlitz market trader Leuchner the future looks bleak. "Nothing will ever change," he said. "Germany has no future. Ask anyone around here."
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