LABOUR MARKET : ECJ: BULGARIAN STUDENTS' ACCESS CANNOT BE EXCESSIVELY RESTRICTED.

• Position: European Union Court of justice

During a transitional period of up to five years following Bulgaria's accession to the EU in 2007, the conditions of access by Bulgarian students to the labour market of another member state may not be more restrictive than those applicable to students who are third-country nationals. This is the conclusion reached in a 21 June ruling (Case C-15/11) by the EU Court of Justice (ECJ) in answer to a question referred by an Austrian court.

The protocol concerning the conditions and arrangements for admission of Bulgaria to the EU provides that access of Bulgarian nationals to the labour markets of the member states is to be regulated, during the transitional period, by national measures, or measures resulting from bilateral agreements. Nonetheless, that protocol also enshrines the principle of preference for citizens of the EU over third-country workers. In 2008, an Austrian national applied for a work permit on behalf of a Bulgarian national, who was studying in Austria and who had already been resident there for over a year. The Landesgeschaftsstelle des Arbeitsmarktservice Wien (Regional Agency of the Department of Employment, Vienna, Austria) rejected that application on the ground that the maximum number of foreign workers for the region of Vienna had already been exceeded. The Verwaltungsgerichtshof (Administrative Court, Austria), hearing the case, asked the ECJ whether such legislation is compatible with EU law.

This regulation provides that a work permit can be issued only if the situation of the labour market permitted employing the foreign worker; and where the maximum numbers of foreign workers fixed by legislation had been exceeded, the issuing of a work permit should be subject to certain additional conditions; and...