The Regulation of European labour mobility: national policy responses to the free movement of labour transitional arrangements of recent EU enlargements’

This paper analyses the reasons for variation in policy responses of the older member states of the European Union with respect to free movement for workers from the new member states that joined in 2004 and 2007. A combination of domestic political pressures and economic institutional factors, as well as the policy positions of other member states, can explain differences in the policies adopted. Particular attention is paid to the UK, which was only large EU-15 state to allow nationals from the eight states that joined the EU in 2004 to freely work in its labour market, but prevented Bulgarians and Romanians from being able to do so three years later.