The number of European Union countries without restrictions on Bulgarians and Romanians has risen to 14 after Hungary and Portugal opened their labour markets to nationals of the two Balkan countries, a media statement from the European Commission said on January 8 2009.

Just before New Year's Eve, Greece and Spain did the same. Now out of 25 EU member states, only 11 remain with labour restrictions for Bulgarians and Romanians.  

This means that workers from Bulgaria and Romania can now move freely to 14 member states to take up employment there. Denmark, which currently imposes some restrictions, has also announced that it will stop applying restrictions for Bulgarian and Romanian workers from  May 1 2009, when it will also end all restrictions for workers from the EU-8 member states that joined in 2004.

All Member States that continue to restrict labour market access by applying national law can end these restrictions at any time during the second phase. In principle, full free movement of workers should apply after the end of the second phase (December 31 2011).

Member states can only maintain restrictions thereafter if there is a serious disturbance (or threat thereof) to the labour market. All restrictions for workers from Bulgaria and Romania must be lifted by December 31 2013 at the very latest when full free movement of workers will apply across all 27 EU countries. 

The following EU countries still enforce labour restrictions on Bulgarian and Romanian citizens: Ireland, France, Italy, the UK, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Austria, Denmark, Belgium and Germany.