Bulgaria and Romania angry at British clampdown
Bulgaria and Romania today expressed anger at Britain’s decision to restrict access to its workers, as one minister noted thousands of Britons had been allowed to buy holiday homes at Bulgarian resorts.
The Balkan neighbours join the European Union on January 1, but Britain said it would let no more than 20,000 of their citizens in to work.
In Sofia, officials today refused to elaborate on a threat by Bulgaria’s Foreign Ministry of taking “reciprocal action” against London.
Bulgarian Labour Minister Emilia Maslarova said the measure was unfair to a country that had opened its property market to Britons.
Thousands of British citizens have bought second homes in Bulgaria, and about 400,000 British tourists visit Bulgaria’s seaside and winter resorts each year.
“You can’t come in Bulgaria to buy homes, to live or holiday here and at the same time say we are not welcome in your country,” she said.
Maslarova said fewer than 40,000 Bulgarians were willing to emigrate in the next five years to work or study abroad, most eyeing Germany and Spain.
Romanian Prime Minister Calin Popescu Tariceanu accused the British cabinet of caving into populist domestic pressure.
