A day after Britain and Ireland announced officially that they would limit the access of Romanian and Bulgarian workers on their market once the two countries join the EU next year, the four most important parties in the German Bundestag “are set” to call for the activation of safeguard clauses on the two East European countries from the very first day of their EU membership,

according to German media quoted by EUObserver.com.

The two governing parties in Germany and the two parliamentary opposition parties said such a move is needed as soon as January 1 next year, considering Romania and Bulgaria have not yet met the European criteria on justice metters.

The move comes against the trend in Brussels, where the European Commission would agree with the activation of the safeguard clauses - such as non-automatic recognition of court verdicts in Romania and Bulgaria - at a later date.

According to German MPs quoted by local media, the final decision in this regard should be made at the EU summit in December the latest.

The German Parliament is among the last not to have ratified the Accession Treaty of Romania and Bulgaria to the EU.