Great Britain and the free movement of the labour force

Approximately one month since all restrictions on the EU labour market were completely lifted, the number of Bulgarian and Romanian immigrants in Great Britain is ranging within “acceptable limits

Corina Cristea, 28.01.2014, 13:18

Romania’s and Bulgaria’s EU Accession Treaty allowed the EU founding countries and the older members, which had joined the block before January the 1st 2007 to temporarily restrict the free access of Romanian and Bulgarian workers on the labour market, to win time and make preparations for the free movement of the labour force in the entire community space. 9 countries- Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, Luxemburg, Malta, France, Great Britain, Ireland and Spain- maintained the respective restrictions on their labour market until the last day of 2013, when the period during which such temporary measures could be kept in place expired.

Awaited with fear, the day of January 1st 2014 didn’t bring along an avalanche of workers from the two countries, as was expected, particularly by Britons. No invasion occurred in the ensuing month, either, a reasonable level of the migration rate being reported during this period of time. The reality is confirmed by British Prime Minister David Cameron himself, who has urged Tory MPs not to endanger his plans to restrict immigration in Great Britain.

Cameron has said however that “MPs were more concerned about the number of arrivals over a long period” and they “wanted the Prime Minister to add new restrictions to the governments Immigration Bill, which is returning to the House of Commons on Thursday”. Over 70 British MPs would like the law to be amended, to include extended controls on the British labour force market, in the case of Romanian and Bulgarian citizens, until 2018.

Cameron admitted sharing their “frustration”, explaining however that “his hands were tied over the issue as the UK had already extended the controls to the maximum seven years“. “Those seven years are now up,” Cameron said. “We are not allowed to extend them further under the current rules… we have done the extent of what we can do”. Cameron went on to say that “the numbers of Romanians and Bulgarians arriving in the UK since the last work curbs were lifted are at a reasonable level”.

The law aims at curbing the access of immigrants from other EU member states to social benefits and public services and at facilitating the repatriation of immigrants who infringe the law. According to “the Guardian”, Tory MPs say they do not try to destroy the draft law promoted by Cameron, but they would like a series of amendments to be made. Actually, as Radio Romania’s correspondent in Great Britain underlines, the dispute conceals a conflict within the party, between those who would like Great Britain to leave the EU and those who would like their country to remain a EU member state.