[size=50:1oqenmby]Daily Telegraph

[size=150:1oqenmby]We'd rather go to Germany or Spain than Britain
[size=150:1oqenmby]says Bulgarian minister

Bulgarians would rather settle in Germany, Spain or Italy than Britain when immigration controls are lifted next year, the country's foreign minister has said.

Nikolay Mladenov said Britain is exaggerating the risk of a wave of immigration from Bulgaria from next year with "
fearful debates"
. Speaking to Sky News's Murnaghan, Mr Mladenov also suggested the UK's efforts to discourage Bulgarian immigrants could "
dampen"
relations between the two countries.

MPs have raised concerns about a potential influx of immigrants from Romania and Bulgaria, which joined the EU in 2007 ago and agreed to temporary restrictions on movement of their citizens.
Some, including Boris Johnson, the London Mayor, have suggested an extension of these curbs. Others have suggested Britain could launch a negative advertising campaign to put eastern European citizens off Britain. According to The Observer, Romania has sought assurances from William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, that a promise to lift the controls will be honoured.

However, Mr Mladenov said most Bulgarians would not want to come to Britain anyway.
"
The UK would not be the primary country of choice for many people to go and work,"
he said. "
Our economy is mostly connected to the German economy. "
We have a large number of companies working in places like Spain and Italy, where we have long-standing traditions and where the labour market had opened to Bulgarians quite some time ago."

He played down suggestions that Bulgarians would follow the model of the Poles, who arrived in hundreds of thousands after their country's entrance to the EU.

"
I do not expect the UK to be overwhelmed by a wave of our nationals coming over seeking employment for a number of reasons,"
he said. "
When we look at the experience of other countries over the last seven years, this has not happened and there is no reason to believe that this would happen in the UK in the January of next year.

"
We have not seen since Bulgaria's accession to the European Union mass waves of Bulgarians moving across Europe and seeking illegal rights or illegal immigration to other countries.
He also said Britain should be grateful to immigrants for being "
beneficial to your economy"
.
Ion Jinga, the Romanian ambassador to the UK, also said fears that many Romanians would come to the UK was a "
false problem"
. "
Romanians' immigration pattern is not towards the UK but towards Spain, Italy and France, for instance because of the language proximity, Romanian being a Latin language,"
he said.