ABSTRACT
This chapter highlights the legal rules, at European Union (EU) and domestic level, which set the parameters of Central and Eastern European (CEE) accession national's formal rights to work in the EU Member States during the transitional period. It analyses the potential of accession nationals to qualify as migrant workers in the aftermath of enlargement when transitional restrictions on the free movement of persons apply. The chapter looks at the background and rationale behind the imposition of transitional mobility restrictions in the aftermath of the 2004 enlargement. It examines the provisions themselves, as included in the Accession Treaties, and then considers the national implementation of transitional restrictions. The chapter also examines how accession nationals gain access to the status of migrant worker during the transitional period. It explores the climate within which EU8 and EU2 migrant workers have had to operate as a result of the interaction between EU law and the implementing domestic law.
