Alongside Bulgarians, Romanian citizens will be given unrestricted rights to live and work in the UK starting 2014, after temporary restrictions imposed in 2005 to protect the British labor market are lifted, said British Home Secretary Theresa May. On the other hand, the Shadow Labor Party announced it would support all measures meant to extend labor market restrictions. Theresa May explained that European agreements make the extension of restrictions impossible, since their extension would mean the cancellation of provisions stipulated in the agreements signed with Romania and Bulgaria the moment they joined the EU.

The British Home Secretary pointed out however that London was having consultations with other European capitals in order to avoid abuse, such as formal marriages, within the free movement system of the EU. The British government is considering limiting the immigrants’ access to the social assistance and health care systems, access that seems to have encouraged immigrants to go to the UK. Actually, free movement will also underlie the plan forwarded by British Foreign Secretary William Hague to revise Britain’s relations with the EU.

London is involved in a legal dispute with the EU over the restriction of social assistance services for immigrants. The British Home Office has not specified how many of the 29 million Romanian and Bulgarian citizens will benefit from free access to the labor market starting 2014. Some experts anticipate a significant inflow of East European immigrants, while the Labor Party is fuelling anti-immigration sentiment, warning that immigrants could put pressure on jobs and salaries in the UK.

At present, 8 states in the EU- the UK, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Austria, Luxembourg, Malta and Ireland- have labor market restrictions in place for the Romanian and Bulgarian citizens.