Dutch block borders to Romanians, Bulgarians over job fears

(THE HAGUE) - The Netherlands has opted against opening its borders to workers from Bulgaria and Romania from January 1 amid heightened fears over job security, the social affairs ministry said Thursday.

"The minister told parliament (Thursday) that there will be no free entry to Romanians and Bulgarians from January 1," Bea Versteeg, spokeswoman for minister Piet Hein Donner, told AFP.

"The economic crisis has caused concern for rising unemployment, and that is why the minister won't open the borders.

"This doesn't mean that we will not allow them by 2010 or 2011, when the economy starts booming again and we need the people."

Donner gave no indication when the decision might be reviewed, but like all other EU member states, the Netherlands had up to 2012 to decide.

The minister will inform the European Union of his stance, said Versteeg.

Bulgaria and Romania became members of the European Union in January 2007. At the time, the bloc exempted other member states from providing automatic entry to Romanian and Bulgarian workers for a two-year period ending December 31, 2008.

Member states had to inform the EU by year-end when they would start granting workers from these countries exemptions from requiring work permits, explained Versteeg.

As at April 2008, the Netherlands counted 100,000 labour migrants from middle- and eastern-European countries that joined the EU in 2004, the vast majority of them Polish.

The country reported a 3.6 percent unemployment rate in October.