UK and European flags flying. Photograph by Lancastrian
Prime Minister David Cameron’s plans to tighten the eligibility rules for benefits for immigrants from Bulgaria and Romania are an overreaction said EU commissioners Lazlo Andor.
Speaking to the BBC’s Today programme, the European commissioner for employment, social affairs and inclusion said that the British public had not been given the full “truth” about the movement of people within the EU. Parties such as UKIP have campaigned on misinformation about the EU, and the majority of the British press remains hostile to Europe.
Andor said that more people were coming to the UK from Italy and Spain than the new Eastern bloc countries, and two thirds of immigrants to the UK come from non-EU countries, and warned that Britain’s anti-EU stance made Britain look like a “nasty” country.
He also explained that the UK was involved in discussions to regulate the free movement of people within the UK, and that moves by the UK to pick and choose parts of the EU agreements it could be a slippery slope towards disintegration of the EU.
