Brussels: No UK Request for EU Migrant Curbs

Politics » BULGARIA IN EU | October 8, 2012, Monday // 17:23
Bulgaria: Brussels: No UK Request for EU Migrant Curbs The right to free movement of workers has existed in EU treaties since 1957. File photo by EPA/BGNES

The UK government has made no request to revise the treaty to change the right to free movement of Bulgarian and Romanian workers, a European Commission spokesman said on Monday.

The statement came a day after UK Home Secretary Theresa May told The Sunday Times that the EU's freedom of movement directive, which guarantees the right of its 500 million citizens to travel freely within the EU, should be reviewed.

Asked about the issue at a regular press briefing on Monday, Jonathan Todd, a spokesman for the European Commission, said this topic crops up from time to time in the UK political debate.

"The right to free movement of workers has existed in the treaty since 1957... The right to free movement of workers is of enormous benefit to the European economy and to the British economy," Todd said.

He added that many UK workers are employed elsewhere in the EU under the same rules.

Earlier on Monday Bulgarian Foreign Minister Nikolay Mladenov made it clear there is no possibility whatsoever for the UK to introduce visas for Bulgarians.

Mladenov reminded that all labor restrictions for Bulgarian citizens in the EU will be lifted in 2014.

The Bulgarian minister described UK Home Secretary Theresa May's statement as "election campaigning."

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Tags: European Commission, Nikolay Mladenov, Foreign Minister, UK, immigration controls, European Union, visas, restrictions, labor market, Romanian, Bulgarian, theresa may, Home Secretary

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