Sexy Polish plumber to woo French

The legend "Welcome to Poland" appears in the top left hand-side corner.

"This is not an official Polish campaign, we just did it as a joke as there has been a lot of talk about Polish plumbers during the recent referendum [on the constitution]", a source at the tourism bureau said.

She added, "We have had a lot of reactions to it already, most of them in good humour".

The Polish plumber recently came to prominence in French public debate, becoming a symbol for undesirable eastern European workers who come to France to earn cash on the black while costing French service providers their jobs.

The Polish plumber emerged during the discussions surrounding the EU constitution in May, as well as during the ongoing scrap over the services directive, which proposes that service providers from new member states should be able to work in old Europe on the basis of their domestic labour regulations.

Paris is taking the situation seriously however, with the French daily, Liberation, reporting that the parliament on Thursday voted in favour of a text stating that any foreign enterprise willing to establish a branch in France must submit to French working conditions.

Germany has also taken measures to bring in a minimum wage law to combat so-called social dumping in the past few months.

Meanwhile, Slovakia is inciting its unemployed to go and work abroad, with an "expatriation allowance" soon to be offered to those willing to take the plunge, Le Figaro reports.