- Title: VARIOUS: UK to restrict migration from new EU members Bulgaria and Romania
- Date: 24th October 2006
- Summary: (W3) BERLIN, GERMANY (OCTOBER 24, 2006) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR OF FOREIGN MINISTRY WITH E.U., BRITISH AND GERMAN FLAGS
- Embargoed: 8th November 2006 12:00
- Keywords:
- Topics: International Relations
- Reuters ID: LVA67F0R9JUL08HW1IB1YH10Y699
- Story Text: The United Kingdom and Ireland will restrict the influx of migrant workers from Bulgaria and Romania after they join the European Union (EU) in January, marking a shift from the open-door policy adopted towards recent new entrants.
The controls were announced by both countries on Tuesday (October 24), at least partly in response to growing public concern in the bloc about large numbers of migrant workers who can undercut local charges and increase pressure on public services.
Similar measures are expected to be applied by many western EU members, though Slovakia announced an open-door policy last week.
Britain's restrictions, to be reviewed annually, seek to limit numbers of low-skilled migrants from the two states.
The move comes after London grossly underestimated the numbers of eastern European workers entering Britain after the EU's eastward expansion in 2004. Prime Minister Tony Blair's government has come under public pressure over rising immigration.
Britain won favour with the 10 EU newcomers in 2004 when it offered their workers unfettered access. Sweden and Ireland were the only other two EU countries that adopted the open-door policy.
But the London government said in August that more than 400,000 workers from the eight former communist states (Malta and Cyprus also joined) had come to Britain, far higher than official forecasts that between 5,000 and 13,000 new immigrants would arrive each year.
The EU Commission said it was the discretion of member states to impose restrictions but it opposed controls.
Critics of controls say they will encourage more immigrants to work illegally since Bulgarians and Romanians will have the freedom to live and travel across the bloc from January.
In Britain, low-skilled workers from Bulgaria and Romania will be restricted to the food-processing and agriculture sectors under a quota system, Reid said.
Workers with specialist skills must prove they are doing jobs that cannot be filled by residents and meet tests on qualifications and earnings.
Students can take part-time work provided they are enrolled in an approved college. Self-employed workers retain their right to set up a business as agreed in the EU's accession treaty.
Home Secretary (interior minister) John Reid said on Tuesday: "There will be no automatic right of anyone to come and work in this country. We will manage this process gradually and we will attempt to achieve the balance between the needs of our economy and taking the opportunities where there is a shortage of skilled labour -- and on the other hand protecting the managed transition and our public services. So, as regards skilled workers, then we will be dictated by the needs of our economy -- we will take as many as we need from the skilled and highly skilled area. In terms of a category which worries many people, which is unskilled or low skilled workers, there will be no automatic right to come and work in this country. We will cap those numbers in the first instance at 20,000."
British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett, visiting Germany on Tuesday, said: "This time we feel that there will be merit in making sure that we have a more controlled process, so that we are judging how this is impinging on our labour market at each step. So it is not a suggestion that there is something wrong, just a recognition that actually there are more challenges and we need to address them well, in everyone's interest."
In response, Bulgaria said on Tuesday it would consider reciprocal measures against Britain.
"We would be disappointed in a decision imposing restrictions on free movement of the Bulgarian labour force because we have excellent relations with Great Britain. Imposing such restrictions is a right of any EU member, this is in the protocol. On the other hand, we think that such a decision would put us in an unequal position with the other 10 new EU member states who joined the EU in 2004. All our analysis shows that there is no sign of a mass migration of the Bulgarian labour force to the UK after January 1st, 2007. We would consider reciprocal measures against the UK and any other country that imposes such measures on Bulgaria," said Bulgarian foreign ministry spokesman Dimitar Tsanchev. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2011. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
- Usage Terms/Restrictions: None