Some Western European member states fear a flood of new immigrants from Bulgaria and Romania, but officials in both countries say most of those who wanted to work abroad have already left.

Critics in western EU countries fear that difficulties at home could produce a new wave of immigration after the exodus of Poles and other central Europeans following the 2004 expansion.

Most of the older EU nations have refused to open their borders completely to Bulgarians and Romanians. Yet, many central European countries welcome new entrants to their job markets, such as Slovakia, Slovenia, the Czech Republic, Poland and the three Baltic members - Lithuania, Latvia and Slovenia.

Most of the 15 older EU member states have put in place restrictions on the free movement of workers from the two new members - but Finland and Sweden are two exceptions.

The UK and Ireland restricted migration from Bulgaria and Romania when the two countries join the European Union in 2007, reducing support for allowing unlimited immigration within the union.

London said it will issue work visas to Bulgarians and Romanians under the current system, with high-skilled applicants, the self-employed, and up to 19,750 agricultural workers allowed in each year.

It will be an offence for migrant workers to work in Britain without an authorization document. Breaches will be punished by an on-the-spot fixed penalty, with employers facing fines. Immigration experts said the measures may drive workers into black-market jobs that aren't regulated by government.

Fear of competition from cheap labor led France and Germany, the duo that built the EU, to water down a proposal this year to let service workers from plumbers to hairdressers ply their trade anywhere in the bloc.

The European Commission joined officials from Bulgaria and Romania and expressed disappointment with the decisions, saying countries should make a bigger effort to allow workers to flow freely within the EU.

Bulgarian Foreign Ministry said the UK ranks seventh as a destination to work abroad by people in his nation after Spain, Germany, the US, Greece, Brazil, Canada and France.

The ministry estimates between 14,000 and 15,300 Bulgarians are interested in working abroad next year.

More than three million have left Romania and Bulgaria since the fall of communism in 1989 and local governments say the flow should dry up in coming years.

Both Bulgaria and Romania are much poorer than the rest of the EU, with GDP per capita of about 33% of the EU average, compared with 50% in Poland.

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