(MENAFN- Qatar News Agency) Bulgarians and Romanians become eligible Wednesday to work anywhere within the European Union, with the lifting of labour market restrictions. The move, seven years after the two countries joined the bloc, comes amid heated debate over the impact of opening doors to the poorest of its 28 members.
The EU has rebuffed attempts to curtail their movement and downplayed suggestions of a flood of people seeking social welfare benefits rather than work. "In hard times, mobile EU citizens are all too often an easy target," the (DPA) quoted EU employment commissioner Laszlo Andor as saying.
"The commission does recognize that there can be local problems created by a large, sudden influx of people from other EU countries into a particular city or region," he said. "They can put a strain on education, housing and social services. The solution is to address these specific problems - not to put up barriers against these workers." Nineteen EU members had already opened their doors to workers from Bulgaria and Romania by last month.
Some of the leading economies - Germany, Britain, France, Spain and the Netherlands - were not among them however. Croatia is the only EU member still subject to labour restrictions. Thirteen EU states have indicated that they will seek to limit full labour market access until 2020.
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