Preşedinţia ungară a Uniunii Europene a recunoscut faptul că libertatea de circulaţie a persoanelor constituie una dintre libertăţile fundamentale garantate de Tratat şi de legislaţia secundară, acest lucru incluzând dreptul cetăţenilor UE de a trăi şi de a lucra în alt stat membru. Consiliul a subliniat totodată că nu ar trebui să fie invocată criza economică şi financiară ca justificare unică şi generală pentru continuarea aplicării de către anumite state membre a măsurilor restrictive la adresa cetăţenilor României şi Bulgariei, state ce au aderat după 2007.

Aş dori să întreb Consiliul UE care sunt realizările concrete ale Preşedinţiei ungare în acest domeniu?

The present answer, which has been drawn up by the Presidency and is not binding on either the Council or its members as such, was not presented orally at Question Time to the Council during the July 2011 part-session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg.

Concerning the temporary restrictions in the Accession Treaties⁽¹⁾ , it is to be recalled that it is up to each Member State still applying restrictions for Romanian and Bulgarian workers to assess the impacts on its labour markets and to decide whether to continue or to ease the remaining restrictions before the end of the transitional period in December 2013.

Currently, 15 Member States have opened their labour markets completely to the workers from Bulgaria and Romania: the Czech Republic, Denmark, Greece, Spain, Estonia, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Slovakia, Finland and Sweden. Most of the 10 Member States that have maintained restrictions have simplified their procedures or have reduced restrictions in some sectors/professions. These countries must lift the remaining restrictions by 31 December 2011 unless a country informs the Commission before that date that it will continue to apply them because of serious disturbances in its labour market. In this case, restrictions in the third phase of the transitional arrangements may apply until 31 December 2013 at the latest.

The Council has indeed recalled in numerous occasions that freedom of movement for persons is one of the fundamental freedoms guaranteed by the Treaty and the secondary legislation and that it includes the right of EU citizens to live and work in another Member State. The Council has also invited Member States that continue to apply restrictions under the transitional arrangements set out in the Accession Treaties to lift restrictions in the third phase if serious disturbances to the labour markets of the Member States concerned, or a threat of thereof, cannot be established.⁽²⁾