Lift of restrictions for Romanian workers across all EU countries

The last restrictions on the free movement of workers from Bulgaria and Romania were lifted on January 1, 2014. Bulgarian and Romanian citizens are now able to exercise their right to work in all EU countries without a work permit.

According to the EC estimations, there are currently some 2 million unfilled vacancies in the EU.

Up to January 2014, Romanians and Bulgarians could only work without restrictions in 19 countries of the European Union.

At the moment, there are over 3 million Bulgarians and Romanians already living in other member states, according to the European Commission.

“The end of the restrictions for Bulgarian and Romanian workers comes at a time of high unemployment and tough budget adjustment in many European countries. In hard times, mobile EU citizens are all too often an easy target: they are sometimes depicted as taking jobs away from local people or, on the contrary, not working and abusing social benefits schemes.”

In fact, says the EC, studies have consistently shown the benefits of free movement of workers for the economies of host countries since mobile workers complement host country workers by helping to address skills gaps and labor shortages.

The EC “does recognize that there can be local problems created by a large, sudden influx of people from other EU countries into a particular city or region” and recommends addressing these specific problems instead of putting up barriers against the workers.

The EU member States can use the European Social Fund (worth over EUR 10 billion every year) to help to deal with some of these local problems. Starting January 1, 2014, each Member State should spend at least 20 percent of ESF funds on promoting social inclusion and combating poverty, according to the EC.

The EC recommends member states to enforce their national legislation to prevent discrimination against or exploitation of workers from other EU countries.