Nine European countries have declared that they want to maintain their labour restrictions on Bulgarian and Romanian nationals until the final possible date, 31 December 2013. These countries include Austria, Belgium, Britain, France, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta and the Netherlands.

According to Employment and Social Affairs Commissioner Laslo Andor, the arguments presented by these nine countries to keep labour restrictions are “unconvincing”. Andor, speaking Friday following a meeting of EU ministers responsible for employment and social policy, said he would request the nine countries to provide better argumentation, or change their decision. According to EU rules, the countries still maintaining restrictions need to notify the Commission of the reasons why they consider that opening of their labour market would threaten their national economies.