A high-ranking EU official has told Britain that it is “too generous” with welfare payments to immigrants from the EU.
Viviane Reding, EU justice commissioner, said: "It seems that some national systems are too generous. Don't blame the commission or EU rules for national choices and national regulatory systems."
Britain’s Home Secretary, Theresa May, has been pleading with the EU to change its free movement rules before people from Romania and Bulgaria are allowed next month to move freely within the EU.
But Mrs Reding appears to have ruled out any changes to the rules, advising instead.
"If member states want to restrict the availability of social benefits to EU citizens they can do two things: First, change their national systems to make them less generous.
“Second, apply the existing EU rules which provide safeguards to counter abuse, fraud and error: for example possible expulsion orders and re-entry bans in case of abuses."
The commission has also warned that proposals by Prime Minister Cameron to tighten up the payment of benefits to EU immigrants next year will be monitored in Brussels with a view to legal action if the measures break European law.
"Our EU rules are good and they are here to stay. Member states need to apply them to tackle abuse," said Mrs Reding.
The UK has some support from Germany, the Netherlands and Austria on wishing to see reforms to free movement.
After failing to win the argument for existing rules to be changed ahead of a possible influx of migrants in January, Mrs May is now focussed on seeking a long-term overhaul which could require an EU treaty change.
"For those new countries that come in, for accession treaties in the future: I think we need to be able to slow full access to free movement until we can be sure that mass migration is not going to take place. That, for example, could be by requiring new Member States to reach a certain level of income or economic outlook ahead before full free movement rights are allowed," she said.
"Secondly I think we need to take the opportunity to look ahead and see how we can solve some of the problems that occur with free movement. For example, shouldn't national governments be able to put a cap on numbers if they believe that there are issues around economic migration?"
