British PM pledges crackdown on EU migrant benefits
(LONDON) - British Prime Minister David Cameron on Wednesday announced plans to restrict the right of European Union migrants to claim welfare benefits, prompting a rebuke from the bloc's employment commissioner.
Cameron was responding to growing calls from his Conservative party and the media for action to manage the expected influx of Bulgarian and Romanians when restrictions on their working rights across the EU are lifted on January 1.
"I know many people are deeply concerned about the impact that could have on our country. I share those concerns," he wrote in an article in the Financial Times.
But European employment commissioner Laszlo Andor accused Cameron of an "unfortunate over-reaction", saying Britain risked becoming seen as the "nasty country" of the EU.
The former Labour government opened Britain's borders to workers from the 10 new member states who joined the EU in 2004, but underestimated the arrivals by several hundred thousand a year.
When Romania and Bulgaria joined in 2007, restrictions were imposed which are only now coming to an end.
Addressing fears of a new wave of arrivals, Cameron said no EU migrants would receive unemployment benefits for the first three months after they arrive in Britain -- up from one month currently -- and then only for six months.
Migrants found to be begging or homeless will also be removed and barred from re-entering Britain for a year, as ministers seek to clamp down on so-called "benefit tourism".
Research group MigrationWatch claims some 50,000 Bulgarians and Romanians are set to arrive in each of the next five years while the Bulgarian ambassador put the number for his compatriots at around 8,000.
Cameron admitted he did not know how many people the measures would affect, but said: "It's about sending a signal."
He proposed countries joining the bloc in the future be required to reach a certain level of GDP per head before their citizens are allowed to work elsewhere in the EU, to stop "vast migrations" caused by income disparity.
"It is time for a settlement which recognises that free movement is a central principle of the EU, but it cannot be a completely unqualified one," he wrote.
He said Britain would seek to negotiate such a change as part of its efforts to reform the bloc before holding a referendum on Britain's membership by 2017.
'A slippery slope'
The EU's Andor warned the prime minister against any action which could undermine the single market, saying that interfering with the rules was a "slippery slope".
"This is an unfortunate over-reaction," the European commissioner told BBC radio, suggesting much of the debate in Britain about the issue was driven by "hysteria".
"The unilateral action... risks presenting the UK as the kind of nasty country in the European Union," he said.
Cameron's government took office in 2010 with a pledge to radically cut net migration to Britain, tightening the visa system for non-EU migrants and seeking to limit their access to the state-funded National Health Service (NHS).
But ministers have little control over EU migration and for all the benefits trumpeted by business leaders, the issue is increasingly cited by eurosceptics as a reason for Britain to exit the bloc.
Cameron suggested the new benefits measures should not encounter opposition from Brussels, saying: "All this is what we can legally do within the limits of the treaties."
The measures were also dismissed by the UKIP leader Nigel Farage, whose anti-European, anti-immigration message has struck a chord with many voters.
Farage said the government would "do nothing" to stop the influx of Bulgarians and Romanians, adding that Cameron was "trying to shoot UKIP's fox with a catapult made from soggy spaghetti."
A number of eurosceptic Conservative lawmakers suggested in parliament that Cameron defy EU laws and extend the work restrictions for another few years.
"By the time it comes to court hopefully we will have had our referendum and left this wretched organisation altogether," said Philip Hollobone.