EU reaction: European Commission disappointed that Ireland will not welcome workers from Romania and Bulgaria
The European Commission has criticised Ireland's decision to restrict labour market access for workers from Bulgaria and Romania when these states join the EU in January.
A spokeswoman for the employment commissioner, Vladimir Spidla, said that the commission regretted the decision by Ireland and Britain, which had previously opened their labour markets to citizens of the 10 new members when they joined in 2004.
"We regret that member states that opened to the 10 are now putting restrictions on Bulgaria and Romania," she said. "The economic implications have been very positive for the last two years after the previous enlargement . . . unemployment fell and employment rates went up."
Under Romania and Bulgaria's EU accession treaties Ireland can choose to retain restrictions on the rights of workers from both countries to work in the Republic for a maximum of seven years. The transitional restrictions can be lifted at any time.
Meanwhile, Bulgaria and Romania expressed disappointment at the decisions of the Irish and British governments.
"We would have expected to be treated in the same way as the 2004 enlargement," said Lazar Colanescu, Romania's ambassador to the EU. "It is recognised that Romania and Bulgaria are part of that fifth enlargement."
So far, just two EU states, Finland and Slovakia, have said that they will open up their labour markets fully to workers from Romania and Bulgaria. EU states have until December 31st to make public their intentions for workers from the two newest members of the EU club.
However, few EU diplomats expect countries such as Germany and Austria to open their labour markets to Romanians and Bulgarians. These two countries have already stated publicly that they will maintain transitional working restrictions on the eight former communist member-states which joined the Union in 2004 for the maximum possible period of seven years.
Several recent studies suggest that most people from Romania and Bulgaria who wished to travel abroad to work would try to travel to traditional destinations such as Italy, Greece and Spain. Large communities of workers from both states already live in those countries.
Ironically, the Government has announced its curb on free movement of labour in 2006, which the EU has branded the "European Year of Workers' Mobility". The EU is spending €10 million this year to popularise the concept of moving between states to take up employment through a series of job fairs, advertisements and websites.
Official statistics show that just 2 per cent of people of working age currently live in an EU country other than their country of origin. However, a recent Eurobarometer survey shows that 53 per cent of Europeans associate the EU with the "freedom to travel and work abroad". Irish citizens are the most positive in the EU about working abroad, with 68 per cent of people saying that long-distance mobility is a "good thing". However, just one-quarter of Irish citizens would be prepared to move to another EU country to take a job if unemployed at home.