Brussels officially notified the European Commission about its decision late on Friday, just hours after the UK and Ireland made a similar announcement.
EU countries were supposed to open their labor markets to Romania and Bulgaria on January 1, 2012, but they may extend labor restrictions for two additional years, until 2014, if they are confronted with serious labor market issues.
Earlier this week, the European Parliament renewed a call for an open door labor market in the ten older member states that still impose restrictions for job-seekers from Romania and Bulgaria.
Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, and UK all still restrict the access of Romanian and Bulgarian workers to their labor markets. Spain is also restricting Romanian workers’ access, with the European Commission’s approval, until 31 December 2012, due to serious disturbances on its labor market.