UK Advisory Committee Recommends Maintaining Employment Restrictions For Romanians, Bulgarians

The United Kingdom's Migration Advisory Committee recommends maintaining restrictions on the access of Bulgarian and Romanian nationals to employment, as lifting them would have a negative impact on the British labor market.

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"In response to the question of whether there is a serious disturbance, or threat of such a disturbance, to the UK labour market, our answer is yes," says the committee in a report published Friday in London. "Regarding the question of whether maintaining existing restrictions on Bulgarian and Romanian nationals' access to the labour market would assist in addressing the serious labour market disturbance our answer is also yes."

"The extent to which maintaining existing restrictions would assist in addressing any such disturbance is, however, subject to considerable uncertainty," the report concludes.

According to Martin Harris, the UK Ambassador to Romania, the British Government will make a decision on the restrictions based on an analysis of the Migration Advisory Committee, which includes economists and labor market specialists.

All EU member states must allow Romanians and Bulgarians access to the labor market by the end of 2011, ahead of the 2013 deadline, says a resolution adopted Tuesday by the European Parliament, calling on the Commission to initiate infringement procedures against non-compliant Member States.

The resolution notes that "no negative effects have been reported in those Member States which have not applied the transitional measures concerning free movement of workers originating from Member States that acceded to the EU in 2004 and 2007."

Eleven member states, including Austria, Belgium, France, Luxembourg, Malta, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Spain, still restrict Romanian citizens from the labor market.

According to Romania's EU accession Treaty, EU member states must liberalize the work market for Romanians gradually by 2014.

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