Almost a million Bulgarian and Romanian citizens residing in Spain are now allowed to be self-employed starting January 1, 2009, as the Spanish government decided in December to lift the labor ban on them.

However, Spain's Deputy Prime Minister MarГ­a Teresa FernГЎndez de la Vega has annouced that the Spanish government would review its decision in six months' time so that it can evaluate the impact of not renewing the moratorium on the Spanish labor, the Spanish news website Euroresidentes reported Friday.

Thus, if the government finds that the lifting of the labor ban on Bulgarians and Romanians had had a negative impact, it might introduce new restrictions in the middle of 2009. The moratorium on working in other EU member states that applied to Rumanian and Bulgarian immigrants came into effect from 1st January 2007 when Bulgaria and Rumania became members of the EU.

There are 143,035 Bulgarians are living in Spain out of which 130,000 are between 16 and 65 years old, and 715,750 Rumanians in Spain out of which 650,000 currently work, according to data cited by Euroresidentes.

According to the Spanish deputy president, MarГ­a Teresa FernГЎndez de la Vega, the Spanish government had decided not to renew the labor ban because it hoped that of Rumanian and Bulgarian immigrants currently living in Spain would be willing to return to their home countries. At present the governments of the two newest EU member states have launched campaigns aimed at attracting their immigrants back from Spain.

We need your support so Novinite.com can keep delivering news and information about Bulgaria! Thank you!