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Nine EU states keep work restrictions on Romanians and Bulgarians till end-2013
Italy and the Czech Republic notified the European Commission (EC) that beginning Jan 1, 2012 they are fully applying the EU free movement legislation in the case of Romanian and Bulgarian workers, whereas nine states - UK, Ireland, Germany, Belgium, France, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands and Austria - announced the EU executive body that they would keep the restrictions in place until the end of 2013, EU sources on Friday confirmed for Agerpres.
Great Britain was the first of the states to have imposed work restrictions on Romanians and Bulgarians till Dec. 31, 2011, to notify the Commission on Nov. 24 of its restriction extension plans; it was followed by Ireland (Dec. 15), Germany (Dec. 21), Belgium Luxembourg, Malta, Austria (Dec. 22), France and the Netherlands (Dec. 23).
All 9 member states that sent notices to the European Commission offered explanations stemming from findings of serious disturbances in the labor market or of such disturbances looming. Had these notifications not been sent previous to Jan. 1, 2012, Romanian and Bulgarian workers would have been subject - as of this date - to the EU legislation on free movement.
According to the same sources, although there is no need for the European Commission to authorize the further enforcement by member states of the restrictions, European Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion Laszlo Andor intends to present his standpoint on the notifications sent by the respective states, as well as their explanations, in a meeting of the EPSCO Council (Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs). Three days ago, EC spokesman Ryan Heath had said that the EU executive body would examine this week the notifications received from the nine states.
Under Romania and Bulgaria's EU Accession Treaty, the EU-25 (the founder states and those that joined the EU before January 1, 2007) are allowed to temporarily restrict the free access of Romanian and Bulgarian workers to their labor markets, in preparation of the full freedom for workforce movement in the EU.
The 7-year general transition period is divided into three stages (2 plus 3 plus 2 years). Throughout this period, a safeguard clause allows member states to reintroduce restrictions if there are serious disturbances on their workforce markets, or the threat of such disturbances (the way Spain did on July 22 this year). The transitional measures will irrevocably end on December 31, 2013.
As far as Spain is concerned, the government in Madrid decided on July 22 to unilaterally suspend the European legislation on the free movement of Romanian workers, citing serious turbulence on its labor market, characterized by record-high unemployment rates and a slowdown in economic recovery, and asked the Commission - as the safeguard clause requires - to declare the EU relevant legislation suspended. The EU executive body approved Spain's request on August 11, authorizing this country to temporarily restrict the Romanian workers' access to the domestic market until December 31, 2012. Since the authorization of the reintroduction of restrictions under the safeguard clause is effective till December 31, 2012, Spain does not need to further send the Commission a notification of the serious disturbances or threat of such disturbances on its domestic market. The reintroduced restrictions do not apply to the Romanian citizens who on July 22, 2011 were already active on the Spanish labor market or who were registered as seeking work with the Spanish Public Employment Service.