Switzerland will hold a referendum in May 2009 on allowing Bulgarians and Romanians into the Swiss labour market.

Bulgarian National Radio (BNR) reported on October 9 2008 that MPs in Switzerland approved a protocol on citizens from the two countries being eligible in terms of the agreement of the free movement of persons between the European Union and Switzerland.

Earlier, the European Parliament approved the agreement being extended to include Bulgarians and Romanians.

The protocol sets out the respective transition periods and quotas for workers from the two countries.

The change will come into force if approved in a referendum in May 2009. According to the BNR report, access to the Swiss labour market will happen in a phased process. Every year, a larger number of workers from Bulgaria and Romania would be allowed in, depending on existing labour information and employment statistics in Switzerland.

According to the website of the Swiss federal office for migration, the protocol on the extension of the Agreement on the Free Movement of Persons to the 10 new EU Member States entered into force on 1 April 1 2006.

With the enlargement of the EU on May 1 2004, to include 10 new members, existing bilateral agreements between Switzerland and the EU were automatically extended to the new member states. The only exception was the Agreement on Free Movement of Persons of 1999 for which amendments had to be negotiated with the EU. In a protocol, a separate interim agreement was defined for the new Eastern European member states.

This transitional agreement envisions a step-by-step and controlled opening of the Swiss employment market for workers from these new member states.

Restrictions within the employment market (priority for Swiss nationals, rising contingents, control of salary conditions and terms and conditions of employment) may remain in force until April 30 2011, the federal office for migration said.

In its winter 2004 session, the Swiss parliament approved the protocol together with the revision of the accompanying measures to prevent salary and social welfare dumping. A referendum against the expansion of the Agreement on the Free Movement of Persons was rejected by the Swiss electorate in September 2005. The Agreement entered into force on April 1 2006.

After Bulgaria and Romania joined the EU on January 2007, negotiations began in summer 2007 on extending the agreement on the free movement of persons to include these two countries.

In June 2008, Switzerland's federal council decided to extend the Free Movement of Persons Agreement to Romania and Bulgaria.

Switzerland and the EU agreed on transitional provisions regarding the extension of the agreement to these two states: Switzerland can continue to limit access to its labour market (priority granted to Swiss nationals, control of wages and working conditions, increasing annual quotas) for a maximum of seven years after the agreement comes into force (probably in 2009).

Further, Switzerland can make use of the special protective clause up to 10 years after the entry into force of the protocol which provides for the reintroduction of quotas in case of a high level of immigration.

The issue has been one taken up by some political groupings in Switzerland. The referendum is being held because the Swiss People's Party, the right-wing Liga Ticino and the Swiss democrats gathered the 50 000 signatures required for requesting one.

In February 2008, Bulgaria's Darik Radio reported that representatives of these parties said that "uncontrolled mass migration" to Switzerland from Bulgaria and Romania must be stopped.