YEAH, THEY'LL CATCH UP ANY DAY NOW...:

The Workplace: In Europe, unity has its limits (Thomas Fuller, 8/31/04, International Herald Tribune)

HALLUIN, France The residents of this border town understand the idea of Europe’s single market better than most.

They dart back and forth across the nearly invisible frontier with Belgium to buy cigarettes, do their food shopping or enjoy a meal.

But don’t bother asking Frank Degezelle, a Belgian electrician who lives across the border in Menen, to fix your faulty fuse box in France.

And don’t try calling Dirk Vandenbilcke, a painter on the Belgian side, if the living room walls of your house in France need freshening up.

They will both tell you that the paperwork is a nightmare and not worth the hassle for them.

It’s been more than a decade since the European Union declared itself a single market, but the reality on the ground here shows a lot of division.

‘‘I don’t work in France,’’ said Vandenbilcke, the painter, whose office is less than a kilometer from the border. Paying taxes in both countries is very complicated, he said, and before starting a job in France he is required to fill out forms that transfer his social security and medical credits. That might take more time than the job itself.

The European Union has made great strides in the free movement of shampoo, vegetables or wine across borders but the free movement of plumbers, electricians or accountants is still slowed by a thicket of national regulations.