Belgium will impose restrictions to the free access of Bulgarian and Romanian workers to the local labour market, after the two countries become EU members.

The curb will remain effective for a period of two years.

Representatives of the Belgian foreign ministry said that a formal decision has not been taken yet.

After the end of the two-year restrictive period workers from the 10 countries that became union members in 2004 still lack the right to access freely the Belgian labour market, mediapool.bg said.

Workers from these countries are only allowed to work in spheres experiencing shortage of qualified local labourers.

On October 24 Britain and Ireland said that they were imposing labour market restrictions. Bulgarian and Romanian workers would be able to work only in food processing and agriculture.

The European Commission said it was against the introduction of such limitations. Bulgaria's Foreign Ministry said it might consider reciprocal measures.