Hungary Closes Labour Market for Bulgarians for 6 Months

Politics » BULGARIA IN EU | January 4, 2007, Thursday // 00:00

The Hungarian government announced its decision to impose a six-month transition period for immigrant workers from Bulgaria and Romania.

It said the restrictive regime will be reviewed in six months.

Thus the Central European country became the first of the ten nations that joined the EU in 2004 to impose temporary restrictions on Bulgarian and Romanian jobseekers, saying it would open up its labour market to workers from the two countries "in phases".

The two Balkan countries joined the EU on January 1, raising the number of the bloc's member nations to 27. Despite their robust economic growth in recent years, incomes in the two Black Sea countries remain well below those in the other 25 states, making them the poorest in the club.

Most of the EU15 have announced labour access restrictions. These will remain in place for between 12 and 24 months, after which they will be reviewed. Fearing a new major influx of migrant workers following the two Balkan nations' entry,

The UK announced a set of measures in October, curbing the access of Bulgarian and Romanian jobseekers to its labour market. Shortly after that Ireland followed suit with similar restrictions.

Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain also have said they will introduce quotas or other work-permit systems.

Alone among the EU15, Finland and Sweden have confirmed they will not impose limits.

While free movement of workers is one of the fundamental EU principles, member states are allowed to impose temporary restrictions to protect their labour markets. All such measures must be dropped by January 2014 at the latest, though they will be under review well before that.

Downplaying fears within the Union, Sofia and Bucharest have both said they do not expect their countries' admission into the bloc to be followed by an exodus of jobseekers.

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