Romanians are not treated as European citizens, Romania president Traian Basescu declared in an interview for the Spanish daily El Pais, quoted by Realitatea TV. The head of state considers that restrictions imposed to Romanian workers on the Spanish market would encourage illegal work. Even more, Basescu warned that Romanians working on the black market risk to become a time bomb and expressed his hope that Spain will not see the kind of events that caused the recent tensions in Spain.

Basescu believes that expelling is not a solution, whatever the circumstances. In his opinion, the worst thing is that Romanians are not sensing that they are treated as Europeans.

Spain imposed restrictions for Romanians on the labor market for two years, immediately after Romanian joined the European Union in January 2007. During his visit in Spain, dedicated to solving the problem of illegal workers, Basescu also committed to helping the Spanish authorities to fight crimes related to Romanians. Still, Basescu said he will not accept to impose circulation restrictions to Romanians in any other case than a court decision.